-Caveat Lector- http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/regional/092799encephalitis.html September 27, 1999 With New Virus, Experts Suspect More Died of Encephalitis By DAVID BARSTOW Having discovered that they have most likely been looking for the wrong virus, public health officials are investigating whether as many as eight more people than previously reported have died in New York City's mysterious encephalitis outbreak. Until Sunday, local health officials had attributed 3 deaths to the epidemic, with 15 more people infected in New York City and Westchester County. The disease, they said, was St. Louis encephalitis. But now that additional laboratory tests have detected the presence of a different virus in some of those who died during the outbreak, officials are confronting the possibility that the scope of the epidemic may may be greater than they first thought. Dr. Neal L. Cohen, the New York City Health Commissioner, said Sunday that blood and spinal fluid samples from 77 people who tested negative for St. Louis encephalitis would now be re-examined for the new virus, identified as the West Nile virus, or a close variant known as the Kunjin virus. Seven of those 77 people later died, but their deaths were not publicly attributed to the epidemic because they had tested negative for St. Louis encephalitis, Dr. Cohen said. "It would have been irresponsible for us to give the public the perception that people that were dying who tested negative were related to this outbreak," he said. But that approach has changed now that tests have indicated the presence of the West Nile or Kunjin virus in one of the seven people who died after testing negative for St. Louis encephalitis. Kristine A. Smith, a spokeswoman for the State Department of Health, said Sunday that a total of eight deaths during the outbreak have been "associated with clinical encephalitis symptoms." Three of those deaths, she said, were reported to state officials late last week. "Now we know what to look for," Ms. Smith said. "We were looking for St. Louis encephalitis, and we weren't finding it. If we know exactly what we are looking for, it's going to be easier to find it." In all, Dr. Cohen said, city officials are now investigating whether the West Nile or Kunjin viruses were present in 11 of the people who died during the outbreak. He cautioned, however, that several of those deaths may not be related to encephalitis. Brain samples from seven people who died have been sent, or are en route, to the Emerging Diseases Laboratory at the University of California at Irvine, said W. Ian Lipkin, director of the center. This is the laboratory that last week first identified the virus as either the West Nile, found in Africa, or the Kunjin, found in Australia. Neither virus has ever been detected in the Western Hemisphere. Late on Friday, the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also detected a West Nile-like virus in brain tissue extracted from one person who died, confirming the initial results from the California lab. The C.D.C. has also detected the virus in dead birds found in the New York City region. Taken together, the findings have caused public health officials to revisit many of the same questions they were asking at the outset of the epidemic in August: Where did it come from? How widely has it spread? "The scope of the epidemic, we want to get as firm a grip on it was we can," Ms. Smith said. In a news conference Sunday, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani acknowledged that the health toll may turn out to be higher now that scientists are focusing on a different disease. "What we anticipate is over the next day or two they probably are going to reclassify a number of cases as Nile fever that previously had not been found to be St. Louis encephalitis," he said. "These are not new cases," he added. "These are reclassifications of old cases. And in most situations, the people have already been released from the hospital, and there may be a few fatalities that had been borderline cases that will be described as Nile fever." It was unclear Sunday why the initial testing for St. Louis encephalitis did not detect the West Nile or Kunjin viruses. Dr. Cohen referred questions on this subject to the C.D.C., which conducted many of the tests. Barbara Stewart, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C., said that the initial tests were not as precise as subsequent tests. What's more, she said, results from the early tests were difficult to interpret because of the close similarities between various strains of viruses that can result in encephalitis. "It's a question of reading the strength of the reactivity," she said. Dr. Lipkin, whose laboratory uses molecular diagnostic testing to identify the genetic footprints of new viruses, called the detection of the West Nile or Kunjin viruses "very significant." "Whenever you find a new virus in a new ecological niche, that's interesting in its own right," he said. The finding presents numerous questions, questions whose answers, he said, could have a "profound impact" on the long-term development of medical treatments for a whole range of viruses. "Clinically, from the standpoint of public health in 1999, it doesn't make any difference," Dr. Lipkin said. "But think, for example, how long people worked on H.I.V. before there were effective anti-virals for that. Unless you know what the agents are, how can you possibly develop an effective strategy?" While the discovery of a new virus in this hemisphere is considered scientifically significant, Mayor Giuliani said it had no practical impact on the city's response to the outbreak. "The things that we have to do about it are exactly the same," he said yesterday. "So although there is a reclassification of the disease, the things that the city or any city would have to do are essentially the same. You have to spray to reduce dramatically the insect population. Both diseases are carried in the same way -- by birds to mosquitoes and then to human beings. And the symptoms, although not as severe, are roughly the same, so the treatment is essentially the same." Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company === http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19990926/aponline220940_000.htm New Virus Detected in Manhattan The Associated Press Sunday, Sept. 26, 1999; 10:09 p.m. EDT NEW YORK –– A virus never before seen in the Western Hemisphere caused at least one of the deaths in New York City attributed to St. Louis encephalitis, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday. Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the CDC, said that scientists there finished analyzing DNA late Friday from a tissue sample from one of three New York City residents who have died of a mysterious mosquito-borne virus in recent weeks. "We were able to identify West Nile-like virus," she said. "We're using the word 'like' to indicate that we still have some more work to do to determine if it is a variation on the strain of West Nile or a new virus." Officials said the unprecedented discovery of the virus in the United States was no cause for alarm, as the pesticide spraying now under way to combat St. Louis encephalitis should also work against the mosquitoes that carry the West Nile virus. Health officials said last week that a virus believed to be West Nile had been found in dead birds in the metropolitan region. They said scientists were checking to see if it was that virus, rather than St. Louis encephalitis, that had killed three New York City residents and sickened 15 others in New York City and in Westchester County. Reynolds said the West Nile virus is usually found in Africa and Europe. "We have a lot of work ahead of us yet," she said. "We're looking at some new samples from humans, and we've got work to do with birds and mosquitoes." © Copyright 1999 The Associated Press -- ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
