DOE -- Medical and Infectious Disease Update -- Wednesday, November 5,
2003

DOE weekly updates on SARS, West Nile Virus, or other illnesses will
continue as appropriate or as requested. The following information is
current as of Thursday, November 6, 2003, 0700 hours, EDT. Information
presented is routinely taken from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), <http://www.cdc.gov/>, The World Health Organization
(WHO), <http://www.who.int/en/>, the Department of Defense Global
Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System site,
(DoD-GEIS)-<http://www.geis.ha.osd.mil/>, and other creditable sources.
**This week's report was delayed due to a reaction this editor had to
the pneumonia 'pneumovax 23' vaccine. See the report at the end.**

**PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR LOVED ONES--GET A FLU SHOT!**

**Recent News**

**Synthetic \'Good\' Cholesterol Helps Clear Arteries**, **Small Study
Indicates the Possibility That Drug Therapy Could Reverse Heart
Disease,** *By Rob Stein,* Washington Post Staff Writer, Wednesday,
November 5, 2003: A synthetic form of \"good\" cholesterol has been
shown to quickly shrink blockages clogging coronary arteries, offering
for the first time the possibility of a drug that could actually rapidly
reverse heart disease, researchers reported yesterday \...
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A484-2003Nov4.html>

**Don\'t use ipecac to treat poisoning, say pediatricians,** *Mon, 03
Nov 2003,* CHICAGO - Parents should avoid using syrup of ipecac to
induce vomiting in children they suspect have ingested poison, a U.S.
pediatrics group said Monday. The American Academy of Pediatrics said
parents and caregivers should call a poison control centre as a first
step when a child has ingested something poisonous \...
<http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/03/Consumers/ipecac031103>

**Engineered Virus Related to Smallpox Evades Vaccine (but treatment
found to counter this effect)** *By Rick Weiss,* Washington Post Staff
Writer, Saturday, November 1, 2003: Scientists in St. Louis have created
a genetically altered strain of mousepox virus \-- a close relative of
the smallpox virus \-- that is so potent it kills mice vaccinated
against the mouse disease, rekindling concerns that some avenues of
biotechnology research may be generating lethal knowledge useful to
bioterrorists \... The lead researcher, virologist Mark Buller of Saint
Louis University ...his effort was aimed not just at making bad viruses
but also at finding a treatment that would work against them. And
happily, he reported, he was successful.

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49149-2003Oct31.html>

**Study suggests widespread quarantine not needed for SARS
containment**, Canadian Press, *Thursday*, October 30, 2003, TORONTO
(CP) - If another outbreak of SARS occurs, far fewer people will need to
be quarantined to prevent the spread of the disease, a new study on the
efficacy of quarantine measures used during last spring\'s SARS outbreak
suggests. The study, done in Beijing, suggests that only people who have
contact with actively ill SARS patients in home or hospital settings
were at real risk of contracting severe acute respiratory syndrome and
needed to be quarantined.
<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_14477.html>

**CDC INFLUENZA SUMMARY UPDATE,** During week 44 (October 25 -- November
1, 2003), One state health department reported regional influenza
activity, 3 states reported local influenza activity, 19 states, New
York City, and Puerto Rico reported sporadic influenza activity, and 24
states and the District of Columbia reported no influenza activity. See
the map near the end.
<http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/flu/weekly.htm>

**CDC West Nile Virus Home Page** -
<http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/index.htm>

**Three Ways to Reduce your West Nile Virus Risk:**

[Avoid Mosquito
Bites](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/prevention_info.htm#1);
[Mosquito-Proof Your
Home](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/prevention_info.htm#mosquitoproof);
[Help Your
Community](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/prevention_info.htm#community)

 **CDC West Nile Virus Statistics, Surveillance, and Control\
**[Maps and
Data](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/surv&control03Maps.htm)
\| [Surveillance
Program](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/surv&control.htm#surveillance)
\|
[Guidelines](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/surv&control.htm#guidelines)
\| [Case
Definition](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/surv&control.htm#casedefinition)
\| [See
Also](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/surv&control.htm#seealso)

**CDC West Nile Virus Case Count -**
[Maps](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/surv&control03Maps.htm)
reporting WNV activity and [human disease
cases](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/surv&controlCaseCount03.htm)
reported to CDC have been updated each **Wednesday**. The information
for the weeks ending October 29, 2003, and November 5, 2003 is shown in
the chart below. Total cases and deaths now stand at 8219 and 142,
respectively.
<http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/surv&controlCaseCount03.htm>

![](media/image1.wmf){width="7.027777777777778in"
height="3.951388888888889in"}

[West Nile Virus
Home](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/index.htm) \> State and
Local Government
Sites-http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/city_states.htm

**Links to State and Local Government West Nile Virus Web Sites**\
Click on a state to link directly to their West Nile virus Web page.\
See list below for additional city-level and main State Health
Department Web sites.

![](media/image2.png){width="4.854166666666667in"
height="3.0416666666666665in"}   

**West Nile Virus Interactive Map** -- If you go to this site, each
State will be 'HOT', and moving your mouse on a State will link you to
its Health Department's West Nile web site and bring up other
information. Where the CDC map and case summery is a lagging indicator,
this map, linked to each State's Health Department, provides real-time
information for those states which update regularly, such as PA and CO.
<http://www.mosquitoczar.com/west_nile_virus>**.**

**West Nile Virus: What You Need To Know\
CDC Factsheet** -
<http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/wnv_factSheet.htm>

![](media/image3.png){width="7.03125in" height="3.375in"}

> <http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/flu/weekly.htm>

**PNEUMOVAX® 23 reaction**: I received the vaccine on Wednesday morning,
November 5, 2003. By that evening, I had a fever of 102 degrees F,
shaking chills, nausea, arthralgias and felt exhausted. I slept for the
next two days. My appetite returned Friday afternoon. The injection site
on my left arm was sore, swollen and inflamed. The CDC representative
told me that this type of reaction occurred in about one in fifty
'pneumovax' vaccines.
<http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/p/pneumovax_23/pneumovax_pi.pdf>.

> George R. Gebus, MD, MPH
>
> US Department of Energy
>
> Office of Occupational Health, EH-53/270CC
>
> 19901 Germantown Road
>
> Germantown, MD 20874-1290
>
> Phone: 301-903-2876
>
> Fax: 301-903-5072
>
> Email: george.gebus@eh.doe.gov