Outbreak Blamed On New Virus

Researchers say a new virus related to strains never seen in North America or South America has been identified as the cause of a viral outbreak that has claimed six lives in the New York City metropolitan region.

Dr. Ian Lipkin, director of the Emerging Diseases Laboratory at the University of California, Irvine, and a team that included members of the New York State Department of Health, found the virus known as a Kunjin/West Nile-like virus in the brains of four people who died from the outbreak. The researchers' findings appear in the Oct. 9 edition of the journal Lancet.

"Based on our current research, we think this is a new variant of a virus we've never seen before in this hemisphere," Lipkin said. "But since these viruses are spread in the same way, measures currently underway to control biting insects should still be effective at preventing the further spread of infection."

The researchers are attempting to decipher the exact genetic composition of the virus, which could help in preparing effective vaccines and in determining where the virus originated and how it made its way to New York.

The current theory is that the virus entered the United States in infected birds. People contract the virus from mosquitoes that have bitten infected birds.

Hundreds of dead birds have been found in recent weeks from Connecticut south to New Jersey and Long Island. On Monday, the state health department said four dead crows found in New Jersey tested positive for the virus.

Meanwhile, a sixth person in the New York City metropolitan region has died from the virus.

The 76-year-old woman, who lived in Nassau County just east of the city, died several days ago, county Health Department spokeswoman Cynthia Brown said Thursday.

The virus so far has infected 54 people in the metropolitan area, according to the state Department of Health. On Wednesday, doctors confirmed the first case of West Nile-like encephalitis in New Jersey.

New York City, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut have been spraying pesticides to kill as many mosquitoes as possible before the first winter chills.

It is called West Nile-like because scientists have not yet identified it with certainty. Health officials initially thought it was the more dangerous St. Louis encephalitis. Symptoms of both fever and headache are similar, but are generally milder with the West Nile strain.

In rare cases, the virus can cause neurological disorders and death. The elderly, young and those with weakened immune systems are most vulnerable.