Outbreak Not Contained; April 2000; Scientific American Magazine; by Holloway; 2 Page(s)

The appearance of West Nile virus in New York City last summer caught the U.S. by surprise. That this virus-which is known in Africa, Asia and, increasingly, in parts of Europe-could find its way to American shores and perform its deadly work for many months before being identified has shaken up the medical community. It has revealed several major gaps in the public health infrastructure that may become ever more important in this era of globalization and emerging diseases.

Because it is mosquito-borne, West Nile has reinforced the need for mosquito surveillance-something that is only sporadically practiced around the country and something that could perhaps help doctors identify other agents causing the many mysterious cases of encephalitis that occur every year. And because it killed birds before it killed seven people, the virus made dramatically clear that the cultural divide between the animal-health and the public-health communities is a dangerous one. "It was a tremendous wake-up call for the United States in general," says William K. Reisen of the Center for Vector-Borne Disease Research at the University of California at Davis.