Massachusetts confirms 4th West Nile case

Continuing its rampage across the states in the U.S., the West Nile Virus claimed one more human victim in Massachusetts yesterday. The State health officials confirmed on Tuesday that a man from Medford is the 4th resident of Massachusetts to contract the WNV, a potentially fatal illness transmitted by mosquito.

The latest victim of WNV is a 49-year-old Medford resident who was diagnosed with the virus after he became ill at the end of September, the Massachusetts state Department of Public Health said.

The Medford man, the third person to contract the mosquito-borne illness this year in Massachusetts, is still getting treatment in hospital. He is the third person who was exposed to the potentially life threatening disease in Massachusetts.

Although the 2007 West Nile Virus Season (May to October) is almost over, but reports of infection are still coming from different states of the country.

"With continuing warm weather, people are still spending significant amounts of time outdoors and the mosquitoes are still active," said Dr. Al DeMaria, Director of Communicable Disease Control at DPH. "This means that there is still the chance for people to get bitten and infected."

In a separate announcement yesterday, the New Hampshire health authorities confirmed that they have detected fresh evidence that Eastern Equine Encephalitis, another disease spread by mosquitoes, is still circulating. The health officials said four new mosquito pools have tested positive for EEE. The infected mosquitoes are found in four towns close to the Massachusetts border, including Brentwood, Fremont, Kingston and Newton, New Hampshire.

As of October 2, 2007, this mosquito-borne West Nile virus has claimed as many as 2511 confirmed cases nationwide with 280 verified as the neuroinvasive (NIV) form, the most severe strain of the virus. According to the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2006 there were 4,261 diagnosed cases of West Nile virus in the United States; 1,459 were the NIV form, with 174 deaths attributed to the disease.

Discovered in the United States in 1999, West Nile virus this year has entrapped 30 of California's 58 counties, of which Kern County, located in the southern Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, leads in the number of cases reported of the West Nile virus.

Usually, WNV strikes the old, the really young, and the ones with a weakened immune system. While WNV usually does not exhibit symptoms in a majority of cases, some of the people infected can develop symptoms similar to flu. Symptoms usually appear between five and 15 days after infection. In specific cases, WNV can prove to be fatal.

This mosquito-borne virus, which is named after the West Nile district of Uganda where the virus was first detected, usually transmits to humans by Culex pipiens, the type of mosquito that carries the virus and spreads the disease. These mosquitoes contract the virus from infected birds. When they feast on blood, they can pump this potentially-fatal virus into a vein and can thus pass it to humans, horses and, in a few cases, dogs.

The best way to ward off the threat of the disease is to ensure there is no heavy presence of mosquito populations in a specific area. WNV carrying mosquitoes’ peak biting times are dawn and dusk, so the best way to avoid being bitten is to stay indoors at these times, or if you have to go out wear long sleeves and pants and cover any exposed skin with a recommended repellent, for instance containing DEET, Picaridin or oil of lemon.