The University’s office of Environmental Health and Safety held the first of two workshops Wednesday to train University staff about how to prevent the West Nile Virus, which national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials expect to spread to Oregon as early as spring.
The workshop was directed toward grounds workers and trades maintenance laborers at the University and focused on how they can minimize mosquito breeding. Infected mosquitos transmit the virus — which has no cure or vaccine — among animals and humans.
The second workshop, taking place April 15, will be for general employees. The event takes place from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the EMU Fir Room.
The virus, first isolated in Uganda’s West Nile district in 1937, arrived in the United States in 1999 when birds in New York started dying from the infection. Since then, the virus has spread across the country, infecting horses and mosquitos in 46 states and infecting humans in 42 states.
Kay Coots, the director of EHS, said the workshops are important for informing students and community members about the virus.
“Educating people on the risk and
educating people on mitigating their environment will help with prevention,” she said.
Coots isn’t the only official concerned with educating people across Oregon, however.
Dr. Emilio DeBess, a public health veterinarian with the Oregon Department of Human Services, said lack of public knowledge about the virus is a major reason why it has spread.
“We’re all highly susceptible,” he said.
DeBess added that DHS wants to provide people with basic facts about the virus, along with steps they can take to reduce the likelihood of infection.
Officials at DHS have mainly emphasized the importance of avoiding mosquito bites, and have started a hot line for prevention advice. Some examples on preventing mosquito bites include changing water in bird baths, installing tight-fitting screens on doors and windows and avoiding outdoor activity at dawn or dusk. For more information, people may call the toll-free hot line at (866) 703-4636.
More than 4,000 people across the United States have been infected with the virus. Nearly 300 of those infected have died.
The symptoms of the virus vary from flu-like, such as headache or sore throat, to West Nile fever or meningitis. Only 10 to 20 percent of those infected will develop serious symptoms, only 1 in 150 of those people will face death.
Dr. Grant Higginson, a public health officer with DHS, said in a statement that the high-risk groups for contracting the virus are people 50 years of age or older and those with paralysis or severe weakness.
“Use common sense,” he said. “When it is reported in Oregon, don’t panic … on the one hand, we’ve had nearly 4,071 laboratory confirmed human cases in this country and (277) deaths. On the other, deaths from West Nile Virus are about a tenth of those we see from influenza.”
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