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West Nile virus found in dead crows in Missouri

October 7, 2001 Posted: 11:20 AM EDT (1520 GMT)

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) -- Five dead crows in the St. Louis region have been found to be infected with the West Nile virus, state health officials said.

The Missouri Department of Health got confirmation of the virus Friday. In a statement on the department's Web site, officials said there have been no confirmed cases of human infection in the state.

"The fact that the virus has finally appeared in Missouri really comes as no surprise to us," said Dr. Howard Pue of the Missouri Health Department. "We anticipated that it would show up either this fall or next spring, since it had been found in other bordering states.

"Missouri has been conducting ongoing surveillance and will continue to monitor its occurrence and provide public health information."

The mosquito-borne virus has been reported in 18 states and the District of Columbia this year alone. Last year, seven states, primarily along the East Coast, reported the virus. In 1999, it was confined to just the New York metropolitan area.

The virus has been spreading through infected birds that fly to other parts of the nation. Mosquitos then bite those birds, helping further the virus's expansion.

Mosquitoes transmit the virus to people, though only a few of those bitten by an infected mosquito will become ill. Most people suffer no symptoms or experience only mild ones. The onset of symptoms usually occurs five to 15 days after being bitten by a mosquito carrying the virus.

Officials are puzzled by the westward expansion of the virus, because migratory birds typically fly north and south.

For instance, Erie, Pennsylvania, was as far west the virus was reported last year. This year, the virus has been detected in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin, and now, Missouri.

A Georgia woman died in August from the virus, and residents of several other eastern seaboard states fell critically ill with it this year.

From 1999 to 2000, 82 cases of the disease and nine deaths occurred in New York and New Jersey.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001