Word: nile
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...spread of the West Nile Virus could be because of interstate traffic of cars [Science, Aug. 12]. Mosquitoes are dragged along in the wake of cars as unsuspecting vacationers travel from east to west. Major highways generally have drainage ditches next to them; crows feed at the roadsides, and lots of mosquitoes breed in those ditches. DICKSON DESPOMMIER, PROFESSOR COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY New York City...
...West Nile Virus marches westward across the country, local governments trying to manage the mosquito-borne disease with targeted spraying are up against another pesky force: residents. Although 25 Texans have been infected with West Nile, the pesticide trucks aren't rolling in Hays County, south of Austin. More than 500 people there have signed petitions complaining that the insecticides make them sick, and the county's $35,000 mosquito-control program is on hold. "It appears that there's some chemically sensitive people," says the county health department's Tom Pope. "They've been raising a lot of Cain...
That doesn't mean you should ignore the West Nile virus. And public-health officials definitely need to update some of their long-forgotten plans for mosquito control. But it's not as if we're living in the 18th or 19th century, when mosquito-borne illnesses like yellow fever ravaged New York, Philadelphia and New Orleans. Back then, doctors didn't even know that mosquitoes were to blame, and there was certainly no vaccine--as there is now for yellow fever--to help control the spread of the disease...
Work is progressing on a vaccine for West Nile. (One for horses already exists.) Meanwhile, the best strategy is to use a little common sense. Killing all the birds and mosquitoes that carry the virus is not really an option. "People are going to have to change their habits," says Dr. John Shanley, director of the infectious disease division at the University of Connecticut in Farmington. That means wearing long-sleeved shirts and long pants and using insect repellent during mosquito season. You should also practice mosquito control around your house. Clean out the rain gutters, remove old tires...
...more on West Nile, visit www.CDC.gov