Word: viruses
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...trying to sleep. It's mosquito time again, but this year, instead of just slapping away the annoying bugs, we're attacking them with a vengeance born out of fear. That's not just a buzzing noise you hear, after all - it's the sound of the West Nile virus, and theculex pipiens mosquito that carries the ignoble honor most likely to carry the potentially deadly disease...
...virus, which has been found in more than 25 types of mosquitoes, is usually not serious; its most common symptoms include fever and a headache. For some, however, including those with weakened immune systems, as well as the very young and the elderly - although this assumption is under fire; the most recent infection, in Washington, D.C., is in a 55-year-old man - the virus can be deadly. That risk, slight as it is, has never been more evident than it has been this summer. To date, the Centers for Disease Control report 120 infections nationwide, as well as five...
...Since West Nile first emerged on the U.S. scene in 1999 (previous cases had been documented in Africa, but never North America), the virus has been contained to the eastern U.S. This year, however, marks a southward shift from New York City's suburbs, where many previous infections had occurred: all five of the summer's fatal cases have been recorded in Louisiana. Many of the bugs appear to have headed south for the summer, in search of the water they crave and the moist, warm temperatures required for efficient breeding...
...DEET.) Towns and cities across the country are also waging war, showering pesticides and larvacides onto vulnerable areas and distributing informative pamphlets door-to-door. Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced the government was providing $10 million to study and fight the spread of West Nile virus, and scientists and researchers have descended on Louisiana, hoping to capture a few of the virulent bugs and root out more specifics on the disease...
AIDS ALERT In this, the third decade of the AIDS epidemic, many young gay men still don't know whether they are infected with the AIDS virus. Researchers tested 6,000 men who frequent gay hangouts in New York, Dallas and four other U.S. cities and found that among those who had HIV, 90% of blacks, 70% of Hispanics and 60% of whites said they had no idea they were infected. The problem: not knowing who's carrying the AIDS virus makes it all the more difficult to stop its spread. --By Janice M. Horowitz...