H1N1 scare distracts from West Nile Virus Threat

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-west-nile-virusjan03,0,7322936.story
By Angie Leventis Lourgos

I found this article to be very interesting when i first read it. This article written by Angie Leventis Lourgos talks about in 2009 while numerous cases of the H1N1 flu came out, a suprisingly low number of another recently new disease was being recorded; the disease known as the West Nile Virus. Usually this disease is seen in higher numbers, but many health experts believe it was due to wet springs and summers; they do not believe that it is actually going away.

Marilyn Ruiz, a clinical assistant professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says that it has not gone away because they are still finding this disease in mosqittos. She also noted that it is easy to forget about, when all this commotion is circled around the H1N1 Virus.

It is said that the best time for this virus to spread is during hot summers when it is a perfect breeding ground for mosqittos. Season like those have reported many more cases of this virus.

It was also reported in 2009 there were only five cases of West Nile in Illinois, but back in 2002 there was a shocking 884 human cases with 67 deaths. This was a huge difference to see. This virus was actually first confirmed in birds here in 2001. Health officials believe that there were more cases of it than reported. Most people who contract this virus do not even know how they got it. People who have it usually show no syptoms, only such like a headache or fever. In rare cases of this virus the disease can be fatal or can case severe damage.

Many health experts say that this disease is hard to track because you need to anylize all three cycles of populations of birds, mosquittos, and humans. the disease is between mosqittos and birds and then mosquittos give it to humans.
Emily Zielinski-Gutierrez of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, "There's a lot we don't know about the interrelationships."
This makes it all the more hard to truly understand this virus.

I believe that this article was very good because instead of just talking about the H1N1 virus, which is all we hear about now, it brought up another virus that is also just as dangerous. It brings up the awareness of the West Nile and how easy it is for a human to contract it. It is only transmitted by mosquittos, and during the summer they are every where. Unlike Swine Flu, the West Nile barely shows any symptoms, a fever and a headache, but those are things that are easily cureable today. So it just shows that we have to be more aware of our surroundings and know ways to protect ourselves from further disease.