Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!ucla-cs!rbraun@spdcc.com
From: rbraun@spdcc.com (Rich Braun)
Newsgroups: sci.med.aids
Subject: Re: Encephalitis
Message-ID: <39220@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 22 Sep 90 19:19:02 GMT
Sender: news@CS.UCLA.EDU
Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
Lines: 22
Approved: phil@wubios.wustl.edu
Note:	Copyright 1990 by Daniel R. Greening.  Permission granted for
Note:	non-commercial reproduction.
Archive-number: 2503

Massachusetts just had an outbreak of mosquito-borne encephalitis, which
killed a number of horses and caused two serious non-fatal human infections.

The state Department of Public Health can be reached at 617-727-2700, and
the disease control number is 617-522-3700.  The DPH runs a seasonal
testing program which captures mosquitos in several locations daily and tests
them for the equine encephalitis virus.  In the event enough of them test
positive, an alert is put out.

This alert led to a hotly-debated aerial spraying program about two weeks
ago, which killed off most of the mosquitos but also killed hundreds of
thousands of fish and aggravated farmers who were concerned about the
market for potentially-contaminated crops.

The disease is fatal in something like 1/3 of cases.  I do not know its
interaction with AIDS.  The publicity over this *should* demonstrate that
researchers know what they're talking about when they say HIV isn't
transmitted by mosquitos, but more likely it just adds to public hysteria
over the threat of insect-carried disease (witness the TV ads talking
about the dread Lyme disease--argh).

-rich