MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2002
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN • 11A
County officials calm despite discovery of virus
Birds infected with West Nile Virus have been found in the shaded counties. The counties are as follows: Sedgwick, McPherson, Douglas, Shawnee, Wyandotte, Johnson, Reno and Republic counties.
By Lindsay Hanson Kansan staff writer
Source: Kansas State University Research and Extension
After three years of westward movement across the United States, the mosquito-borne West Nile virus officially made itself known in Douglas County Thursday.
Health officials said that a blue jay found dead in the county tested positive for the virus that affects birds, horses and humans. A Cowley County resident reported the first case in Kansas on Aug. 7 when a horse died from the infection.
Representatives of the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department said Friday that no one in the area had reported suspicions of human infection of the West Nile virus.
"We're trying to keep people calm," said Kim Ens, registered nurse and communicable diseases coordinator at the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department. She said most people infected with the virus never developed symptoms.
We're talking about such a mild infection that I doubt they'll ever get to a vaccine for humans," she said.
Ens said the human cases that occurred rarely developed past a mild illness. In some cases, however, the infection has been known to cause encephalitis, or swelling of the brain; meningitis, or swelling of the lining of the brain; and death once in every thousand cases.
Symptoms of a West Nile virus infection range from headaches and nausea to eye pains, a rash on the chest and swollen lymph nodes.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that there had been 11 human deaths and 251 lab-confirmed cases in twelve states since the West Nile virus first appeared in 1999. Thirty-seven states have found the virus in birds and in horses, for which a vaccine exists.
Patricia Denning, M.D. of Watkins Health Center said that because the symptoms resembled those of the common flu, detecting a West Nile virus infection could be difficult. She said health care providers would deal
with patients by managing their symptoms.
Ens said that although a small proportion of mosquitoes carried the infection in regions with the West Nile virus, people should protect themselves. She recommended wearing insect repellent with DEET, limiting time outside at dawn and dusk, wearing long sleeves and pants outside, and eliminating pools of stagnant water.
"Luckily it's been a dry summer, so there aren't many places with standing water," Ens said. She said people should change the water in children's swimming pools, bird baths and pet dishes about once every three days.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has been working with offices at Kansas State University and the University of Kansas among others to monitor the spread of the virus for several months.
KU's department of ornithology, which studies birds, has been receiving about 10 calls each day from people finding dead birds in the area.
"Crow's tend to be the canary in the cage that says the West Nile virus is here," said Townsend Peterson, curator of ornithology at the Natural History Museum.
Peterson is part of a team at KU that is surveying the West Nile virus.
He said tracking the virus in mosquitoes is too difficult, so officials look for it in birds instead. He said that surveillance teams could concentrate on monitoring the virus in other parts of the state now that the virus had been confirmed in Douglas County. Peterson said that researchers must wait for the virus to cross the Rocky Mountains.
Some cities like Dallas have taken to spray chemicals to stop the West Nile virus outbreak, but Lawrence does not plan to use such measures, said Richard Ziesienis of the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department.
"We hope not to get to that point to have to deal with mosquitoes in that way," he said.
Despite the widespread media coverage on the virus, Stephanie Swenson. Concordia junior, remained unconcerned about infection.
"I never get bitten by mosquitoes; I only get bitten by flies," she said. "If it gets to the fly species, then I'm in trouble."
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Contact Hanson at ihanson@kansan.com. This story was edited by Melissa Shuman and Jessica Hood.
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