Section A · Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Thursday, September 30, 1999
Nation
MARY KATHERINE GALLAGHER
FILM CINEMAS PRESENTS ASSOCIATION WITH SHE STUDIO'S LIZZIE MICHAELS PRODUCTIONS
MOUNTAIN PARK COUNTY FILM WILL FENELL ELIANNE HENDRAX MANKIRA JAMES MAIRK MICHAELS PRODUCTIONS
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NEW YORK— The investigation into a rare strain of encephalitis that has killed four people in New York is growing, with experts testing dead birds along the East Coast to find out whether the virus has spread.
With winter approaching, the birds may be migrating to other parts of the country from New York, where 37 people have tested positive for the virus, health officials said Tuesday.
The mosquito-borne West Nile virus, never before recorded in the Western Hemisphere, probably entered the United States in infected birds, he said.
"It's possible that it could be seen in other parts of the country," said Dr. Ned Hayes, an epidemiologist for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Spread of virus from New York concerns experts
The Associated Press
The cause of their ailments was reclassified Tuesday by the CDC, which originally blamed the similar St. Louis strain.
So far, the virus has not appeared in any of the dead birds — mostly crows — being tested in areas from Maryland to Florida, said Roger Nascel, a CDC entomologist.
"Crows die every day, but there are many, many causes, from diseases to shotguns." Nasci said. "This is a development situation."
Symptoms of the virus — fever and headache — are similar to those of the St. Louis strain but are generally milder. In rare cases, the virus can cause neurological disorders and death. The elderly, young and those with weakened immune systems are most vulnerable.
New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut have been spraying pesticides to kill mosquitoes. The virus is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes that have bitten the infected birds. It is not transmitted from person to person or from birds to people.
New York Health Commissioner Dr. Antonia Novello said 250 dead birds have turned up from Connecticut to Suffolk County on Long Island.
New inspector to head probe of Chinese nuclear espionage
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON—A 21-year FBI veteran with a background in counterintelligence is taking over the task force conducting the bureau's newly broadened investigation into the alleged Chinese theft of nuclear weapons secrets.
The FBI announced yesterday that Stephen W. Dillard, currently head of its Jackson, Miss., office, has been named inspector in charge of the task force, a job he took over Monday. The bureau is still deciding how many agents are needed for the probe of whether data about the miniature W-88 warhead and other weapons were taken from U.S. nuclear laboratories.
China has rejected any allegations of espionage.
Dillard, who has a law degree
from Mississippi College School of Law, has served in the FBI's national security division at headquarters where he managed all foreign counterintelligence and counterespionage operations as chief of the global section. He also has served as assistant chief of the counterterrorism section, unit chief of the Russian section and unit chief of the counterterrorism section of that division. He also previously worked in the Kansas City, Washington and Salt Lake City field offices.
The FBI broadened its investigation last week, after focusing for nearly four years on a scientist at the Los Alamos nuclear weapons lab in New Mexico.
Attorney General Janet Reno said the expansion was in response to questions that have been raised in terms of new evidence.
"I think there may have been new facts brought to the attention of the FBL," she said.
Several outside panels have criticized the original probe for concentrating exclusively on Los Alamos and have pointed out that many other government and industry people — more than the FBI originally realized — had access to the information that may have been taken.
Technical information about the miniature W-88 warhead had been widely available from numerous places in government and among private contractors and could have come from many organizations other than the weapons labs, a panel of the president's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board concluded in a report in June.
Study called off after patient's death
Volunteer, 18 had a reaction to gene therapy
The Associated Press
TUCSON, Ariz.—A gene therapy experiment has been halted following the death of an 18-year-old Arizona man who volunteered to join the study to help others suffering from his rare metabolic disease.
Jesse Gelsinger died Sept. 16, several days after researchers began infusing his liver with genetically engineered viruses designed to counter ornithine transcarbamylase deficiency, a disease that impairs the body's ability to rid itself of ammonia.
HEDGES
The disorder often leads to coma and death in infancy. Gelsinger, whom doctors first diagnosed with OTC at age 2, had coped with the disease through medications and low-protein foods. Ammonia is produced in the breakdown of protein.
"This kid was as happy as can be." Jesse's father, Paul Gelsinger, told The Arizona Daily Star. "He was saying, 'Dad, they might be able to come up with a cure.' He wanted to do it, and I encouraged him."
The experiment involving 18 patients has been halted until researchers can determine why Jesse died, The Washington Post reported yesterday. The newspaper referred to the death as the first linked by doctors to the field of research that seeks to cure people by giving them new genes.
send letters today to more than 100 scientists across the country conducting human research with similar viruses, asking them to report any evidence of trouble.
In the study at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, DNA without the genetic mutation that causes OTC was inserted into a virus. The virus was then sent directly to the liver, where the mutated gene was active.
Federal officials were expected to
MARILYN LYNCH REALTOR
"The first 24 hours looked pretty similar to other patients," said Mark Batshaw, a physician who is of the pioneers of OTC research. "After 24 hours, though, he just went rapidly downhill."
Jesse became comatose, his face swelled, his body was jaundiced and his oxygen intake dipped to dangerously low levels. Soon his entire body was swelling, inside and out.
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