West Nile is an arboviral disease transmitted though the bite of a mosquito that has picked up the virus by feeding on an infected bird host. West Nile is not directly transmitted from birds to humans or from person to person. The virus was first detected in New York City and surrounding New York counties late summer of 1999. There were seven deaths in the New York area caused by this disease. Infected symptomatic people tend to have flu-like symptoms.
Most people recover from the infection.
But certain populations, mainly the elderly and those with weak immune systems, are more at risk to have a serious illness from the infection and in a few cases die. There have been no human cases of West Nile virus detected in New Jersey. However as most of you know who followed this disease last year, the presence of the virus was detected in 74 bird specimens, mainly crows, from 16 counties. The virus was also found in two mosquito pools in Hudson County. I'd like to talk about some of the developments since our first contact with the virus last fall and the role of the Department in the overall plan.