Senators Respond to Health Threat of West Nile Virus
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2002–Chairing a Senate hearing Tuesday on the growing threat of the West Nile virus, Sen. Edward Kennedy called on his fellow lawmakers to help combat the disease.
Congress should “provide adequate funding for public health measures to contain and reduce the spread” of West Nile, Kennedy, D-MA, said, adding that funding must go to local medical facilities so they can directly combat the rising spread of the virus.
“In the war against disease, the battlegrounds will be our nation’s emergency rooms, and the heroes will be our nation’s health care professionals,” Kennedy said in his opening statement.
The hearing, held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which Kennedy chairs, and the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Governmental Management, Restructuring and the District of Columbia, chaired by Dick Durbin (D-IL), was the first Senate hearing to focus on West Nile since it became a national epidemic.
This year the virus, which is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes that acquire the virus through the blood of an infected bird or animal, has infected almost 2,000 people and caused at least 94 deaths. The virus can spread quickly because it is present in almost all species of mosquitoes.
As of Sept. 13, the Massachusetts Board of Health reported 11 cases and two deaths. Most of the people stricken with the virus were over 50 years old. An infected mosquito pool was found in Swampscott on Sept.19.
The hearing featured testimony from Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Jesse Goodman, deputy director of the Center for Biologics, Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Witnesses emphasized that while researchers and doctors have made advances in understanding the disease, they still have a way to go in eliminating the threat of the virus.
“This is an evolving epidemic, and we don’t know where it’s going next,” Gerberding said.
Since 1999, when the disease broke out in the United States, communities across the nation have adopted preventive measures such as spraying areas with pesticide, conducting survey tests on birds and mosquitoes and educating residents about the disease through public awareness campaigns.
Recently, the threat of transmitting the West Nile virus through blood transfusions has become a concern. Investigations conducted by the FDA, the CDC, state health departments and blood organizations have garnered preliminary results suggesting that organ transplants and blood transfusions have transmitted the disease.
“It is important to recognize that the true dimension of the risks of either blood transfusion or transplantation spreading West Nile virus is not defined at this time and more information is critically needed,” Goodman said in a prepared statement.
The CDC, the FDA and the state health departments are working closely to investigate how many cases of infected transfusions occurred, what preventive measures can be taken, and, most important, how to develop a screening process to detect the West Nile virus in donated blood, Gerberding said.
Witnesses warned that generalized blood screening for West Nile would be a complex and expensive process that could be difficult to implement on a large-scale basis.
The development of a vaccine is also a possible step toward combating the disease. Fauci testified that NIAID has begun to develop a vaccine and expects to move forward with trials early next year. If the trials are successful, a vaccine might be ready within the next few years, Fauci said.
Gerberding stated that this year’s funding for federal and state medical facilities is already stretched and that the only way to advance the fight against West Nile is to push for a strong public health system.
“Addressing the threat of emerging infectious diseases such as WNV depends on a revitalized public health system and sustained and coordinated efforts of many individuals and organizations,” Gerberding said in her testimony.
The Boston Globe reported on Tuesday that doctors in Mississippi and Georgia have found four patients who contracted a new strain of the virus with symptoms-weak muscles, impaired breathing and fevers-that were similar to that of polio. Discovering a link between West Nile and polio will help in diagnosing and treating infected patients, said the doctors who conducted the study.
For now, witnesses reiterated simple measures all citizens can do to protect themselves, like draining pools of water in backyards, using insect repellent that contains DEET (except on infants), keeping skin covered late at night and checking window screens for holes. Gerberding emphasized the high risk West Nile has for the elderly and said she hoped continued public information campaigns would help prevent additional fatal infections in senior citizens.
Published in The Newburyport Daily News, in Massachusetts.
