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Bank Of America Investment Starting today, a group of scientifically selected Slidell-area residents will be asked to answer questions and give samples of their blood to help state and federal disease detectives gauge West Nile virus activity in St. Tammany Parish and prepare for future outbreaks.

. (AXcess News) Reports of West Nilevirus are rising on the West Coast even though fall's cooler weather is dampening the reproduction of mosquitos there. San Francisco reported its third case of West Nile virus today. aged man tested positive for West Nile virus but that he was recovering at his home. The other two who contracted West Nile virus, aged man and woman, were likely to have contracted West Nile virus from visits to the Sacramento area, health officials said.

Investment Opportunity The survey of about 500 households, expected to last a week, will help scientists get an idea of the number of people infected by the mosquito-borne virus. Because human immune systems usually are robust enough to thwart West Nile, it has no effect on most people, and they probably don't even know when they've been infected. However, the virus can cause flu-like symptoms known as West Nile fever and, in about one person in 200, a potentially fatal inflammation of the brain, spinal cord or both.

In a laboratory test, the researchers injected 12 monkeys with the combined virus vaccine and injected eight other monkeys with either the West Nile virus or the dengue virus. Six weeks later, all 20 monkeys were injected with West Nile virus. The dozen that received the combined virus vaccine developed antibodies that successfully protected the animals from the West Nile virus. Human clinical trials with the vaccine are to begin this year, Dr. Brian Murphy, a researcher in NIAID's Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, said Monday.

Banc Of America Investment "For every case of infection, there may be 300 with mild disease or nothing at all," said Dr. Roy Campbell, a medical epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

If you are 40 or older and in general good health, you are invited to participate in this study of an investigational vaccine to prevent West Nile Virus. The West Nile Virus can produce symptoms including fever, headache, myalgia, like symptoms. The research site is in Phoenix, Ariz. Please see //www.centerwatch. stu117138.html.

Banking Investment In Louisiana, there have been 310 people confirmed with the disease this year and 16 killed. Regardless of the effects West Nile may have caused, people infected with the virus are believed to have lifelong immunity to it, Campbell said.

If you are 40 or older and in general good health, you are invited to participate in this study of an investigational vaccine to prevent West Nile Virus. The West Nile Virus can produce symptoms including fever, headache, myalgia, like symptoms. The research site is in Phoenix, Ariz. Please see //www.centerwatch. stu117138.html.

Investment Solution Strategic Slidell hit hard

Brault said this makes it easier for the West Nile virus to adapt to rapidly changing environments. The study found that the death rate among crows exposed to the more virulent strain of the virus was 94 percent, compared to 31 percent among crows exposed to a less virulent version, AFP reported. In 2006, 4, 200 people in the United States were infected with the West Nile virus and 177 died. So far this year, only about a dozen deaths have been reported, but the number of infections has increased fourfold compared to the same time last year.

Investment Banking Services Officials said the Slidell area was picked for the survey because it is relatively compact and because its high number of infections -- 39 confirmed -- will provide plenty of medical information for investigators. Though the work will involve a great deal of shoe-leather epidemiology, Campbell and state epidemiologist Raoult Ratard said people picked for the project won't be caught by surprise.

Bank Investment Before a team shows up at a house, a flier will be dropped off explaining the purpose of the survey and asking permission to interview and draw about 2 teaspoons of blood -- enough to fill a small vial -- from everyone 6 and older. The age requirement is standard for such tests, Campbell said.

Alternative Investment The samples will be confidential, but participants can ask for the results of the blood tests, which will be available in the spring after the results have been analyzed.

Online Investment Services About 40 people from the CDC will work with the state Department of Health and Hospitals on the survey. The group's headquarters will be Slidell Memorial Hospital, the site of Tuesday's news conference to announce the canvass.

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Investment Company The survey marks the federal agency's second deployment to St. Tammany since West Nile cases started popping up during the summer. One reason for studying the virus in and around Slidell will be to see whether it behaves differently in a Southern state than it has elsewhere, Campbell said.

Investment Management Solution Although it is premature to conclude anything about West Nile's regional behavior, he said, the virus's activity seemed to peak earlier in the South than in the Northeast and Midwest.

Investment Management Services And according to the Department of Health and Hospitals, a mosquito species that spreads the virus in the South -- Culex quinquefasciatus, better known as the Southern house mosquito -- is different from Culex pipiens, which transmits West Nile in the North.

Guide Investment Stock The virus, which was first detected in Uganda in 1937, made its debut in the United States in 1999 in New York. According to the CDC, there have been 3,231 people confirmed with infections and 176 killed this year in 37 states and the District of Columbia. Illinois is the leader in both categories, with 691 cases and 43 deaths.

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Investment Stock At this point in Louisiana, the epidemic is dwindling, Ratard said.

Essential Investment Solution But, he said, "cases are not going to go away . . . until the end of the year, when it is cold and there is very little mosquito transmission."

Citicorp Investment Services By learning infection patterns in St. Tammany, the state and parish will be better equipped to fight the epidemic, Campbell said. But Ratard said the investigation shouldn't be interpreted as a chance to second-guess what has been done this year.

Fool Guide Investment Motley "In St. Tammany, there could have been 400 to 600 cases," he said. "We kept that low because of people taking precautions and because of mosquito control. The system has worked very well. It was not 100 percent, but I don't think you can do much better than we did in St. Tammany Parish."

Fidelity Investment Services By John Pope
The Times-Picayune - 10/23/2002

Topic: Pesticides

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