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Two San Benito County sentinel chickens tested positive for the West Nile Virus. The tests were done in the last week of August, according to the California Department of Health. The West Nile Virus is the most common mosquito-borne disease in California. At least 347 deaths have been attributed to WNV since 2003 in the state. According to the department, in 2023, no human cases have been discovered on the Central Coast. Every county surrounding the Central Coast has at least one human or animal test positive for WNV. It's been a landmark year for the disease in California. Seventy-five...

A power failure knocked out the security system at a federal germ lab in Fort Collins for 13 hours Monday and disabled freezers housing thousands of vials of plague and other potential bioweapons. A backup generator kicked on when the power failed. But an electrical short prevented the backup power from being routed through the building, said Colorado State University spokesman Brad Bohlander. As a result, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory was without power for 13 hours, beginning at 3:07 p.m. Monday, Bohlander said. CSU owns the building and leases it to the government.No germ collections were...

A dangerous, large scale outbreak of painful Lyme Disease is being predicted for this summer by a video reporter who has suggested that this animal disease might have been spread to the U.S. population as an inadvertent escape pathogen from the U.S. Plum Island Animal Research facility. Because we've had a very mild winter, "all the conditions are right for one of the biggest outbreaks of LD this summer," says video researcher David Zublick. "What if your backyard is a breeding ground for a most heinous act of bioterrorism by our own government," asks Zublick about research done at Plum...

Babylon 5 and Lost actress Mira Furlan has died at the age of 65, her family and management have confirmed. Furlan played Minbari Ambassador Delenn in the 1990s sci-fi TV drama, Babylon 5, and Danielle Rousseau in the noughties mystery drama, Lost. Her family told the BBC the Croatian actress died on Wednesday due to complications with West Nile Virus. "It is with great sadness that I confirm the passing of Mira Furlan" the statement read. "She was a woman full of kindness, strength and compassion." It continued: "She died peacefully at her home in Los Angeles, surrounded by her...

President Donald Trump officially declared a national emergency over the Wuhan virus Friday, invoking the Stafford Act to release additional resources to combat the nationwide outbreak for state and local governments.“Through very collective action and shared sacrifice, national determination, we will overcome the virus… This will pass,” Trump announced from the Rose Garden. Trump also ordered the opening of “emergency operation centers” and requested that every hospital “activate its emergency preparedness plan” in the wake of the outbreak.According to the latest numbers as of Friday afternoon, nearly 1,300 Americans have tested positive for the virus and 31 people have died,...

Nicotiana benthamiana, already used to produce West Nile virus antibodies, offers similar protection against the devastating Ebola virus The already wide horticultural field has expanded yet more to the new science of pharming. This involves the production of pharmaceuticals through the use of genetic engineering to insert genes that code for desired and otherwise expensive and complicated to produce pharmaceuticals into plants. Today, thanks to the herbaceous plant and close relative of tobacco, Nicotiana benthamiana, already used to produce West Nile virus antibodies, offers similar protection against the devastating Ebola virus. Found amongst rocks on hills and cliffs throughout the...

DENVER — A Colorado man who died of West Nile virus last year was likely infected through a blood transfusion, a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. The man, who was undergoing treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, began developing West Nile symptoms after 29 days in the hospital, sharply narrowing the number of ways he could have been exposed to the virus, according to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. He died after 47 days in the hospital. Eighteen days prior to showing symptoms, the patient received a blood transfusion that health officials now believe contained...

This year is on track to be the worst on record for West Nile virus in the United States. As of 11 September, more than 2,600 new cases, including 118 deaths, had been reported from across the country to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Symptoms of the mosquito-borne disease range from none (in most people) to life-threatening brain inflammation, and it can leave survivors with long-term disabilities including paralysis and fatigue. Researchers are now investigating suggestions that even mild infections may leave another lasting burden — kidney disease. “We are early in our...

SANTA MONICA (CBSLA.com) — Two birds found dead in Santa Monica in the last three months have tested positive for the West Nile Virus, officials said. The most recent bird, an American Crow, was found on July 23 in the area boundaried by Ocean Avenue, Montana Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard, KNX1070’s Pete Demetriou reports. Download: santa-monica-west-nile-warning-2.mp3 The first positive bird was reported on May 17, Santa Monica city officials said. Residents are being asked that if they see dead birds to call 1-877-WNV-BIRD to have them picked up for analysis. “Mosquitoes become infected when they first feed on birds...

West Nile Virus

<p>The West Nile Virus has hit Dallas County in Texas, which has killed 10 people and infected hundreds of others.</p> <p>Planes began spraying for harmful mosquitoes in Dallas north of Interstate 30 and east of the Dallas North Tollway at 10 p.m. Thursday night and continued until early Friday morning.</p>

University of Queensland researchers have made a giant leap forward in the race to develop a vaccine for the potentially debilitating West Nile virus. Associate Professor Alex Khromykh, from UQ's School of Molecular & Microbial Sciences, and colleagues have found a way to generate immune response levels comparable to a live virus vaccine, which could also help suffers of other disease such as dengue fever and Japanese encephalitis. “What this means is that our prototype vaccine has the potential to not only be safer but just as effective as live vaccines,” Dr Khromykh said. Dr Khromykh said West Nile virus...

Deadliness of West Nile virus explained 22 August 2007 NewScientist.com news service A single genetic mutation might explain why West Nile virus has, within a decade, switched from causing relatively mild infections in humans to outbreaks of deadly encephalitis. The virus, which can pass to humans via mosquitoes that feed on infected birds, didn't pose a serious threat until the mid-1990s, when outbreaks of deadly infection sprang up in Israel, Romania, Russia and eventually North America. Aaron Brault and colleagues at the University of California, Davis, discovered that these new strains have in common a mutation in the gene for...

West Nile Virus Decimates Suburban Birds WASHINGTON - Birds that once flourished in suburban skies, including robins, bluebirds and crows, have been devastated by West Nile virus, a study found. Populations of seven species have had dramatic declines across the continent since West Nile emerged in the United States in 1999, according to a first-of-its-kind study. The research, to be published Thursday by the journal Nature, compared 26 years of bird breeding surveys to quantify what had been known anecdotally.

Noisy Spring Avoiding the West Nile virus. By Henry I. Miller The six-year-old U.S. outbreak of West Nile virus is a significant threat to public health and shows no signs of abating. Last year, there were more than 2,500 serious cases and 100 deaths. Though still early in the West Nile virus season (there is a time lag during which animals are infected, mosquitoes convey the virus to humans, and the virus incubates until symptoms occur), this year the mosquito-borne virus has been found in animal hosts (primarily birds) in 39 states, and has caused more than a hundred serious...

"An elderly Fresno County man is the third person in the state to die from complications of West Nile virus this year."

County Takes West Nile Fight To The Air Aerial Spraying Over Sacramento To Begin Monday Night POSTED: 6:56 am PDT August 8, 2005 UPDATED: 6:44 pm PDT August 8, 2005 SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Sacramento Vector Control officials Monday will begin aerial spraying over a large part of Sacramento County in an effort to fight mosquitoes and the West Nile virus. A 71,000-acre area from Interstate 5 to Citrus Heights will be sprayed beginning at 8 p.m. The spraying is expected to last until midnight. The pesticide that will be sprayed is a pyrethins, derived from chrysanthemums. It is the same...

West Nile warning in Citrus Heights Residents are being urged to 'fight the bite' of infected mosquitoes, but City Council members downplay the risk. By Edgar Sanchez -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, July 30, 2005 Story appeared in Metro section, Page B1 Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here. An alert has been issued in Citrus Heights in response to what an official called a "significant outbreak" of West Nile virus found in mosquitoes.

It's 'like nothing we've ever seen before,' O.C. official says. West Nile virus is making a powerful, early showing in Orange County birds this season, possibly signaling an unusually large burst of virus- carrying mosquitoes that was fueled by winter rains. Fourteen dead birds have tested positive for the disease since January. In some bird tissues, infection was so massive that cellular staining used to detect the virus in the laboratory, normally visible only under a microscope, could be seen with the naked eye.

Notwithstanding former President Jimmy Carter's recent statement to the contrary, Undersecretary of State John Bolton's remarks about Cuba's biological weapons capabilities underscore lingering concerns with the rogue island only 90 miles from the United States. Bolton, on May 6, told an audience at the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation that the U.S. is suspicious about Cuban biomedical laboratories and their ability to transfer biological weapons technology to Iraq, Syria and Libya, all countries that Cuban President Fidel Castro visited last year. Bolton also made remarks, which may be interpreted as a clear signal of hardening State Department policy toward Cuba, faulting...