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COPYRIGHT 2003 International Medical News Group
West Nile virus may march westward during the summer of 2003, promulgating disease in record numbers in the Great Plains, the West, and Alaska, two Harvard University investigators predict.
In the meantime, physicians are urged to stay alert to the possibility of diagnosing West Nile virus in their patients, even if the virus has not been a factor in their communities in previous years.
Cases in wild and domestic birds and mammals have already been confirmed across the southern United States, Michigan, and Minnesota. And two suspected human cases of West Nile virus from Louisiana are being investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a possible indicator that the 2003 West Nile virus season has already begun.
"In 2002, West Nile virus made a furious dash across the nation during what was a hot, dry summer, spreading to 44 states, the District of Columbia, and 5 Canadian provinces," said Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard...
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