West Nile virus (WNV) was first detected in the Western Hemisphere in 1999 in New York City. From 1999 through 2004, >16,600 cases of WNV-related illnesses were reported in the United States, of which >7,000 were neuroinvasive disease and >600 were fatal. Several approaches are under way to develop a human vaccine. Through simulations and sensitivity analysis that incorporated uncertainties reg...

Sera of 624 blood donors were evaluated to determine seroprevalence of West Nile virus (WNV) antibodies following the 2003 WNV epidemic in Nebraska. Geographic factors contributing to differences in WNV seropositivity were evaluated. The overall prevalence of WNV in Nebraska was higher than reported previously in other U.S. locations (9.5% WNV immunoglobulin G seroprevalence rate), with the hig...

New York State used the health commerce system to monitor the number of West Nile virus (WNV) human disease cases and the density of dead crows. In each year from 2001 to 2003 and for the 3 years combined, persons living in New York counties (excluding New York City) with elevated weekly dead crow densities (above a threshold value of 0.1 dead crows per square mile) had higher risk (2.0-8.6 tim...

PURPOSE To determine if there are differences in the timing of diagnosis and response to treatment between infants with infantile spasms (IS) and Trisomy 21 (T21) and those with idiopathic IS. METHOD This was a retrospective study evaluating the time from onset of IS to diagnosis, treatment of IS, time from treatment to resolution of IS, and development of epilepsy in children with T21 and IS...

Spathelia L. as currently circumscribed is endemic to the western portion of the West Indies, and contains nine species, one endemic to the Bahamas, three endemic to Jamaica and five endemic to Cuba. The discovery of a new species in Belize brings the total number of species in Spathelia to ten and expands its known distribution beyond the West Indies. Spathelia belizensissp. nov. is herein des...

BACKGROUND Leptospirosis is a neglected zoonosis affecting mainly tropical and subtropical regions worldwide, particularly South America and the Caribbean. As in many other countries, under-reporting of cases was suspected in the French West Indies because of inadequate access to diagnostic tests for the general population. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In order to estimate the real incidenc...

The effective reproduction number, R t , of Ebola virus disease was estimated using country-specific data reported from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to the World Health Organization from March to August, 2014. R t for the three countries lies consistently above 1.0 since June 2014. Country-specific R t for Liberia and Sierra Leone have lied between 1.0 and 2.0. R t <2 indicate that control ...

Vector surveillance for infectious diseases is labor intensive and constantly threatened by budget decisions. We report on outcomes of an undergraduate research experience designed to build surveillance capacity for West Nile Virus (WNV) in Montana (USA). Students maintained weekly trapping stations for mosquitoes and implemented assays to test for WNV in pools of Culex tarsalis. Test results w...

BACKGROUND The effects of weather on West Nile virus (WNV) mosquito populations in the United States have been widely reported, but few studies assess their overall impact on transmission to humans. OBJECTIVES We investigated meteorologic conditions associated with reported human WNV cases in the United States. METHODS We conducted a case-crossover study to assess 16,298 human WNV cases rep...

This paper developed an approach by the synthesis of remote sensing, landscape metrics, and statistical methods to examine the effects of landscape pattern, land surface temperature, and socioeconomic conditions on the spread of West Nile virus (WNV) caused by mosquitoes and animal hosts in Chicago, USA. Land use/land cover and land surface temperature images were derived from Terra's Advanced ...