Lauren Wolvington Biology 1615 Rachel Lofgren November 13, 2013

West Nile Outbreak

Every summer, mosquitos become a pest in our daily lives and with that comes the threat of West Nile. In 1999, one of the biggest outbreaks of the West Nile Virus broke out with 23,500 reported cases and over 900 deaths up until 2006[Nielson 53]. In Utah, we only hear of one or two cases a year and most prove to be nonfatal. Scientist were curious as to what caused such a tremendous outbreak and was responsible for so many illnesses. When the outbreak occurred, the West Nile Virus had not become a threat to all countries in the United States. When the virus was first found and attacking people in California, scientist gathered 12 different species of mosquitos and found 9 of them to be carries of the disease [Nielson 53]. One species in particular that stood out to scientist was the Culex Tarsalis. It was found in the Sacramento Valley and was found to feed on both humans and animals. Horses were its mammal of choice because it seems there were attracted to the hay so it helped scientist to capture them and to test them for the virus. The Culex Tarsalis and the Culex Pipens are both believed to be the main carries for the West Nile Virus in California and giving it to people.

Since California became the state with the most West Nile outbreaks, scientist decided to bate mosquitos and find what was causing this. Mosquitos are attracted to dry ice so they used this as their method of bating them for two months. During that time frame, several bird species were coming up dead. The California Department of Health Services required all dead birds to be given to the research to see if they were infected with West Nile where their kidneys were tested and had an oral swab done [Nielson, 54]. Birds were then tracked by location showing where those who had tested positive and negative were from [Nielson, 54]. Scientists continued to collect dead birds and mosquitos through out 2005 and 2006 to track the amount of humans and birds infected with the virus. In 2006, changes started to take place and scientist didnt find a record of West Nile Virus till late June and found a few days later in a human. However, the exact same amount of dead birds occurred in 2005 and 2006 [Nielson, 56]. Research also found that the highest amount of West Nile cases was between July and August with 14 confirmed cases [Nielson, 56]. Mosquitos like to come out at dusk where temperate isnt as extreme during the day so it was recorded over a three month period the temperature at which mosquitos were at their peek. Scientist were able to reduce the amount of people become infected because of their bating traps they put out but they do not see this as a method that can be used in other places because it is far too costly and time consuming [Nielson, 59]. However, it helped them to find where the communities were largely located and how to control the population. One thing that is still unknown to them is how long it takes once a person is first infected with the virus until symptoms begin to show

[Nielson, 61]. Their guess is somewhere between 3-14 days but by that point, you could be dying in the hospital.