Subject: birds, mosquitos, west nile and ebola
From: Robert Doisneau <robert@live2day.org>
Newsgroups: alt.prophecies.nostradamus

The pieces are coming together for a vector-based nightmare... This
new article brings the pieces together..\

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?
pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1078399802999
&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968705899037

Hybrid mosquito may boost West Nile in N. America



WASHINGTON (AP-CP) — Human infection by West Nile virus may be more
common in North America than in Europe because of a hybrid mosquito
that bites both birds and humans, carrying the virus from one to the
other.

European mosquito species tend to bite either birds or humans, but not
both, a researcher says.

A genetic study of the Culex pipiens mosquito in 33 locations in
Europe has found that there are two different forms of the same
species with different behaviours. One type lives underground, such as
in a subway or in weather-protected areas, and one lives above ground
in the open. The underground type will bite humans, but not birds,
while the above-ground type favours birds.

Dina Fonseca of the Smithsonian Institution, lead author of the study
this week in the journal Science, said 40 per cent of the mosquito
population genetically analysed in the United States are a type of
hybrid Culex that will bite both humans and birds.

Since birds are the primary reservoir for West Nile, the hybrid Culex
forms an infection bridge between humans and birds that may not exist
to the same extent in Europe, said Fonseca.

"If you have a mosquito that only bites mammals, there is no
transmission to humans. If you have a mosquito that only bites birds,
there will be a transmission to other birds, but there will be no
transmission to people," said Fonseca. "You must have a mosquito that
will bite the bird today and the human tomorrow for a transmission to
occur."

She said the West Nile virus is not transmitted between humans or
other mammals. It happens only when the mosquito, which in this case
is called a "bridge vector," first bites a bird and then a mammal,
passing the West Nile virus from an infected bird into an animal or
human. The disease transmission will not go the other way, mammal to
bird, said Fonseca.

Last year, there were 851 probable and 466 confirmed cases of West
Nile reported across Canada, resulting in 10 deaths. The U.S. Centers
for Disease Control last year received reports of 9,186 cases in 45
states. About 80 per cent of people infected by the virus will have no
symptoms at all. For others, the effects will be flu-like symptoms —
fever, headache, swollen lymph nodes and nausea — that go away in a
few days.

About one in every 150 people infected with West Nile will develop a
serious illness, sometimes with convulsions, high fever,
disorientation, numbness, coma and even paralysis. These symptoms can
last weeks and, for some, there can be permanent neurological damage.

Fonseca said the unusual behaviour difference between European and
North American Culex mosquitoes is not the final answer explaining the
difference in rates of West Nile virus infection.

"This could be just one of the factors in the unprecedented epidemic
of West Nile here," she said. "We're not saying this is the only
reason . . . but we're saying this could be a component of this
difference."

Larry Kramer, a lab director in the New York State Department of
Health in Albany, said in Science that Fonseca's suggestion "is a very
enticing theory" that "fits with what we've been seeing."

However, Andrew Spielman of the Harvard School of Public Health in
Boston said in Science that the evidence supporting the theory ``is
anything but solid." He and others believe West Nile became a menace
in the United States because the virus is new to the people and birds
in the Americas and they have not evolved immunity.

Europeans, he said, have been exposed to the virus for centuries.


Robert Doisneau <robert@live2day.org> wrote in
news:Xns94F0B76B595A4robertlive2dayorg@68.6.19.6:

are the cicadas
singing where you are?
keep no pools of water,
but stockpile it.
The bugs may come and
bring this with...

Use Deet.

Sudan: Ebola-Like Virus Confirmed in Western Equatoria



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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

May 21, 2004
Posted to the web May 21, 2004

Nairobi

Ten cases of a haemorrhagic fever, similar to Ebola, were confirmed
on Thursday in Western Equatoria, southern Sudan, the World Health
Organisation (WHO) reported.

Health authorities in Yambio county had reported 15 cases of the
fever, including four deaths, WHO reported. Laboratory testing
performed by the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and by the
Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) USA had confirmed
"an Ebola-like infection" in 10 of the 15 cases.

Dr Abdullahi Ahmed, head of office in WHO southern Sudan, told IRIN
the viral fever appeared to belong to the "Ebola family", in which
there were a number of different strains, and that tests would reveal
its precise nature within 48 hours.

No new cases have been reported for the last three days, while the
most recent case had begun on 15 May, said a WHO press release. Two
patients were being cared for in the isolation ward of Yambio
hospital, while 102 contacts were being followed up by surveillance
teams in a crisis committee that has been established in Yambio.

"Close contacts of people who have been ill with the disease are
followed for a period of 21 days from the date of last contact.
Contacts who develop symptoms during this period can then rapidly be
transferred to hospital, where they can be cared for safely, to
prevent further transmission to others," WHO reported.

Abdullahi said that while there was no treatment for the highly
contagious disease, by isolating patients and following up on people
who had contact with patients, it could be contained. The disease,
which causes bloody vomiting and diarrhoea, is passed on through body
fluids.

Through support and care, said Abdullahi, about 50 percent of
sufferers had survived similar viral diseases in southern Sudan in
the past.

Relevant Links

East Africa
North Africa
Sudan
Health and Medicine



"Our biggest message is not to wash dead bodies," he added, advising
relatives and friends of victims to immediately call local health
authorities who would dispose of the bodies in special body bags,
while respecting local burial rites.

The disease, which has also occurred in neighbouring Uganda and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, may originally have been passed on
to humans by animals, said Abdullahi.