Word: viruses
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Beach houses are boarded up, the ice cream truck is making its last rounds and Labor Day has come and gone, but even as we prepare for the fall, we're still dealing with the worst part of summer: West Nile virus...
...After a week or two of relative calm, the mosquito-borne illness is back in the headlines. The virus took the life of a 73-year-old Queens man Monday who died after two days in the hospital. In Georgia, concerns are mounting over organ donations and blood bank supplies after four organ recipients were treated for symptoms of the virus. One of the recipients died from brain swelling associated with the disease. Overall, this has been a tough year as far as West Nile virus is concerned; when it first appeared during the summer of 1999, it was contained...
...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...
ANTHRAX DOUBLE DUTY Researchers may have uncovered an inventive way of both battling anthrax and detecting its microscopic spores. By studying a virus that can invade and attack the anthrax bacillus, scientists isolated an enzyme, called lysin, that breaks apart the cell's walls, causing it to die. Early work in mice looks promising, though any potential drug based on this discovery would have to be administered immediately after exposure, before the anthrax germ had released its toxins. In addition, scientists have found that lysin could be a useful tool for picking up the presence of even trace amounts...
...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...