Gregg makes case for West Nile virus bill

By Max Heuer

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25, 2002--New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg (R) made the case this week for the need to increase funding for research and programs to combat the West Nile virus, a growing peril around the country that is spreading in the Granite State

"We're seeing in my state the death of the bird population, which is clearly tied to West Nile virus infection, and the fact is that [the virus] could be transmitted to humans in northern New England," Gregg said Tuesday at a joint Senate hearing on the virus by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Governmental Affairs Subcommittee On Oversight Of Government Management, Restructuring and the District of Columbia.

While there are no reports of human infection in New Hampshire to date, about 100 birds have tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire since May compared to a total of 83 birds in all of 2001.

While mosquitoes spread the virus, it is prevalent in many birds.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says there is no evidence to suggest transfer from person to person or from animal to person, ruling out any direct bird-to-human transfer. But the CDC also noted that the presence of dead birds in an area might indicate that the virus is being spread from mosquitoes to birds.

The most recent finding this week was a dead bird from Loudon. This development confirmed "that West Nile virus continues to spread across our state, and northward," Dr. Jose Montero, chief of the New Hampshire bureau of communicable disease, said in a press release Wednesday.

For most humans, exposure to the virus usually brings flu-like symptoms, according to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.

But the virus can be fatal to the elderly, young children and people with weakend immune systems.

Both Gregg, the ranking Republican on the Health Committee, and committee chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA) highlighted the spread of the virus this year in particular.

The virus was first discovered in New York City in 1999. A total of 151 cases and 19 deaths from the virus were reported through 2001.

This year, however, the numbers have spiked - as of Wednesday, 98 people had died and 2,072 cases had been reported to the CDC. The virus also has spread west, with its highest incidences this year in Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

"The news of the spread of the West Nile virus at such a fast rate is alarming," Gregg said in a press release this week.

Gregg introduced legislation last week that would provide $100 million to the CDC to develop mosquito abatement programs, a method of chemical spraying over large land areas to prevent the spread of the disease in mosquitoes.

The bill also directs the National Institutes of Health to research insect control methods and asks various organizations, including the Red Cross, to look into the virus's potential impact on blood supply.

At Tuesday's hearing, Gregg pressed Dr. Jesse L. Goodman, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, on how long it would take to set up a testing system for the virus in blood banks.

Goodman said a testing system could be available as soon as next summer, but added that would be "an optimistic" outlook. Another major issue, Gregg said, is the need to balance the environmental concerns with the need to combat a fatal virus.

"Obviously we're known for years that certain types of spraying do have a significant environmental impact," he said. "Is it appropriate for us, however, to initiate aggressive spraying programs in the face of those environmental impacts because the human impact of not doing the spraying is more significant?"

Among those testifying about the issue was CDC director Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding.

"Spraying usually is really the last resort, and the · assistance that CDC provides usually suggests that we not institute spraying programs until there are actually human cases in an area, because we try to deal with the problem through all other means first," Gerberding said.

The CDC recommends the use of insect repellent that contains the chemical DEET to ward off mosquitoes carrying the virus, but warns that infants should not use it. DEET is safe for use on young children in a concentration no higher than 10 percent, Gerberding said.

A vaccine for the West Nile virus is in the works and may be available in about three years, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at the committee hearing.

Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.