- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A
dead crow found in Wisconsin has tested positive for the West Nile virus,
showing that the mosquito-borne virus is continuing to spread quickly across
the United States, officials said on Friday.
-
- The virus, unknown in North American only a few years
ago but which has killed nine people in the United States since 1999, now
has been identified in 18 states, the District of Columbia and in southern
Ontario, Canada. It infects mainly wild birds.
-
- Officials have expected the virus to move gradually across
the United States because it is spread by birds, but they did not anticipate
it would move so quickly, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
-
- ``Even with birds as the primary carriers of the virus,
we're surprised at how fast it seems to be spreading,'' Robert McLean,
director of the agency's National Wildlife Health Center, said in a statement.
-
- Researchers were conducting further tests on the crow
found near Milwaukee to confirm preliminary results, officials said. A
second dead crow found near the Wisconsin city also was possibly infected
with the virus and was undergoing more tests after first results were inconclusive.
-
- The West Nile virus has appeared this year from Florida
to Massachusetts and west to Louisiana. People, birds and horses can contract
the disease by being bitten by an infected mosquito. The virus cannot be
spread from human to human or from birds to humans.
-
- Most people who contract West Nile suffer nothing more
than headaches and flu-like symptoms, but the elderly, chronically ill
and people with weak immune systems can develop brain inflammation and
die.
-
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in
July that the virus was being found this year at levels double those found
in bird populations last year.
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