(Any links are for informational purposes only. No endorsement is made by either the FHCA or FairHarbor.com or any of its employees.)

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Because of the rapid evolution of new information and understanding about WNV, users should be sure to check the date of web postings and updates!

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• USDA APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Information Service) (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ep/WNV/) is a key resource, particularly for veterinary information.
  APHIS posted an excellent overview of the 1999 West Nile Virus outbreak in the Northeast US, with incidence maps and charts (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/vs/ep/WNV/summary.html).

• Center for Disease Control (CDC) (a Federal Agency that is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services) is an excellent information hub, but it helps to have several points of entry to learn about all their resources.

From CDC's general information search page (http://www.cdc.gov/search.htm), enter search terms (e.g., West Nile Virus), to generate a listing with links to relevant documents.

For summary information on West Nile Virus and other diseases, click on "Health Topics A to Z" which will bring you to URL http://www.cdc.gov/health/diseases.htm and to a hyperlinked listing of diseases.

Or you can choose "State Health Department Searching," (http://search.cdc.gov/shd/search2.htm), which enables searching of documents and resources produced by all the State Departments of Health, and also some international sources.

The CDC's MMWR ("Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report") (http://www2.cdc.gov/mmwr/) is targetted to health care practitioners and researchers. Since Fall 1999, the MMWR has periodically featured brief updates on WNV, with scientific references.

The CDC Division for Infectious Diseases website (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/dvbid.htm) is a direct route to CDC infectious disease summaries, with information about transmission, vectors, and control.
Relevant links from this site include:

"Domestic arboviral encephalitides" (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/arbor/arboinfo.htm)

"Special Alerts and Links" (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/alerts.htm)

• New York City Department of Health, Bureau of Communicable Disease website (http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doh/html/cd/encalert.html) links to press releases and other information about WNV specific to NYC, and also to information of more general interest.

• New York State Department of Health has posted the draft "New York State West Nile Virus Response Plan" (http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/westnile/index.htm). The Response Plan contains information about how the State and Local Health Units plan to prevent and respond to future outbreaks of West Nile Virus. The plan also contains information about the pesticides proposed for West Nile Virus vector (mosquito) control.

• US EPA provides a summary about "Pesticides and Mosquito Control" (http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/citizens/mosquitocontrol.htm).
  EPA also has a searchable website (http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/) with information on all pesticides registered for use in the United States.

• Wildlife Conservation Society is an NGO that operates five public wildlife facilities in New York City (including the Bronx Zoo). Pathologists at WCS played an important role in identifying West Nile Virus as the causative disease agent in the 1999 outbreak. From the WCS homepage (http://www.wcs.org/search/), click on "Search" and enter "West Nile Virus" to read articles from their Wildlife Conservation Magazine Online..

• "The Crow Connection" is written by Dr. Kevin McGowan, an ornithologist with the Cornell University Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Dr. McGowan does research on the behavioral ecology of crows. His website (http://cumv.bio.cornell.edu/mcgowan/westnile.htm) contains full text of "The Crow Connection," and other information about the role of birds in transmitting and hosting West Nile virus.

• Before the New York Metro Area Outbreak. A broader context for incidence of West Nile Virus is provided in a summary by Zdenek Hubalek and Jiri Halouzka. 1999. West Nile Fever: a Reemerging Mosquito-Borne Viral Disease in Europe. Emerging Infectious Diseases 5 (5 September-October): 643-650. Full text: html (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol5no5/hubalek.htm) and pdf (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol5no5/pdf/hubalek.pdf).

Updated March 20, 2000

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

• Update to USGS National Wildlife Health Center's Wildlife Health Alert #99-02B (01/12/2000)
• West Nile Virus May Be New Deadly Strain, USGS Tells Congress (12/14/99)
• USGS Reports That West Nile Virus Goes Beyond Crows (11/17/99)
• USGS National Wildlife Health Center Issues Addendum to Wildlife Health Alert (10/28/99)
• USGS Resource Page for West Nile-like Virus (10/8/99)
• USGS Biologists Tracking West Nile-like Virus in Birds (9/30/99)
• USGS National Wildlife Health Center Issues Wildlife Health Alert #99-02 (9/30/99)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

• Statement by Roger Nasci, Ph.D., Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health & Human Services, to the New York State Assembly, 17 December 1999
• "West-Nile Fever:  A Re-emerging Mosquito-Borne Viral Disease in Europe," Emerging Infectious Diseases 5:5 (10/31/99)
• CDC's Morbidity & Mortality Report:  Update:  West
  Nile-like Encephalitis-New York, 1999 (10/8/99)
• CEC Confirms West Nile-like Virus as Cause of Encephalitis Outbreak in New York (10/5/99)
• CDC's Morbidity & Mortality Report:  West Nile-like
  Virus-New York, 1999 (10/1/99)
• CDC Answers Your Questions About West Nile Encephalitis (10/1/99)
• Information on Arboviral Encephalitides (9/98)
• Guidelines for Arbovirus Surveillance Programs in the U.S. (PDF file) (4/93)

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

• Pesticides & Mosquito Control (10/6/99)
• Mosquitoes:  How to Control Them (11/12/98)

Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)

• Directory of State Departments of Health

New Jersey Department of Health & Senior Services

• New Jersey Mosquito Biology & Control (04/02/00)
• New Jersey Ready Should West Nile Virus Return (03/02/00)
• West Nile-like Virus Alert & Fact Sheets

New York City Department of Health

• Dead Bird Monitoring Report Form for New York City (04/10/00)
• NYC Heath Dept. Presents Results of WNV Serosurvey (03/20/00)
• Comprehensive Arthropod-borne Disease Surveillance & Control Plan 2000 (03/20/00)
• Questions & Answers on West Nile Virus (03/10/00)
• Update on the West Nile-like Virus in New York City
  (10/7/99)
• U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention Reclassifies St. Louis Encephalitis Cases as West Nile-like Virus (9/27/99)

New York State Department of Health

• Draft New York State West Nile Virus Response Plan (02/18/00)

News Media

• CNN News: New York City Gears Up to Fight West Nile Virus
• ABC News: West Nile Virus Found in Wintering New York Area Mosquitoes (03/09/00)
• Time Magazine:  Of Mosquitoes, Dead Birds and Epidemics (10/11/99)
• ABC News: Urban Avian Expedition (9/30/99)

• CNN News:  Doctors Say 37 Now Sick in New York Virus Outbreak (10/4/99)
• CNN News:  Bird Migration Could Spread Rare Encephalitis Strain (9/29/99)
• CNN News:  Mosquitoes Have Discriminating Tastes (8/26/99)

Other Links

• Mayo Clinic:  Viral Encephalitis (1999)
• University of Rhode Island:  Mosquitoes, Disease, and Scrap Tires (no date)
• More Information on Mosquitoes from the Beach Mosquito Control District of Panama City, FL (no date)
• American Mosquito Control Association:  Mosquito Information (no date)

http://biology.usgs.gov/mosquito/mosquito.htm
Last updated April 11, 2000