61 year old Jamie Ellis loved to start her day with a morning walk. But 2 years ago, suddenly, Jamie could barely get out of bed. “I began to ache, I had fever and I began to throw up, and I guess sometime about 8 o’clock that night I was in the emergency room,” says Jamie. She never guessed that she had been infected with the West Nile virus.
Jamie was discharged from the hospital but just days later she was re-admitted. “I could not raise my arm, and I think at that point they thought that I might have had a stroke.”
After a battery of tests, Jamie was diagnosed with West Nile virus, a potentially life-threatening disease transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. Jamie, who doesn’t recall ever getting a mosquito bite, was now completely debilitated with extreme nausea, dizziness, and an inability to breathe.
Now, right in her home town of Starkville, Mississippi, researchers at Mississippi State University are taking a close look at environmental factors which might promote the spread of the West Nile virus.
According to Mississippi State University researcher, Bill Cooke, “Birds, blue jays and crows in particular, develop very high levels of West Nile virus and can pass the disease easily to mosquitoes, which then bite human beings.”
Cooke gathers his information by using remote sensing and geographic information systems. Automated computer software then helps to model geographic and climatic conditions associated with the spread of diseases, those passed from one host to another.
“Remote sensing is acquiring information on an object that you aren’t in contact with by using technology like aerial photography and satellite imagery,” explains Cooke.
Cooke stacks these various layers of information and creates computer generated models of bird habitats, climatic influences, vegetation, water sources and conditions that favor development of mosquito larvae. Combining all these factors, he is able to determine overall risk for the spread of the West Nile virus.
“According to our models, some recreational areas may have a higher risk than others,” reports Cooke. He cautions that densely wooded areas, parks, and areas where activities like boating or hunting are carried out, can be centers for the spread of the West Nile virus.
According to Dr. Richard Falco, a medical entomologist with Fordham University, West Nile virus is also penetrating different geographic areas with varying intensity.
“In the early days in 1999, 2000, New York City and the surrounding areas were centers for the spread of the West Nile virus, but then things moved further west. So, it’s hard to predict where the hot spot this year will be, because that will depend on the local mosquito populations and the ecology of different areas,” explains Dr. Falco.
Especially where the hot spots pop up, it’s crucial that steps are taken to protect oneself against the West Nile virus. “Preventive measures against the West Nile virus include using insect repellant, wearing long sleeves in mosquito-infested areas and draining standing water from residential properties,” says Dr. Falco.
As for Jamie, she’s slowly getting her life back.
“I feel very blessed that I survived. Many people that I heard of, who were infected by the West Nile virus didn’t make it,” says Jamie.
According to Dr. Falco, the elderly, the young and people with immune system deficiencies are more at risk for catching the West Nile virus.
For more information about West Nile Virus, click here:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/