West Nile Virus

West Nile virus has made its first official appearance in the county this year, as two crows found dead in the last month tested positive for the disease, officials said. The first dead crow was found in Santa Clarita on April 28 and the second in Woodland Hills on Wednesday, said Truc Dever, a spokesman for the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District. West Nile virus is transmitted to humans and animals through bites from mosquitoes, which become infected when they feed on infected birds.

Thousands of abandoned swimming pools, another casualty of the real estate market meltdown, have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes that can carry the West Nile virus, Orange County vector control officials said Tuesday. Murky, stagnant water acts as a perfect petri dish for mosquito breeding, say officials who note that as debt-ridden homeowners walk away from their mortgages, paying the pool guy is not high on their to-do list.

One of the nation's worst-hit cities for foreclosures in 2007 -- Bakersfield -- became an epicenter of West Nile virus that year largely because of mosquitoes breeding in abandoned swimming pools, UC Davis and Kern County scientists reported Thursday. The Central Valley city had 140 diagnosed cases, up from 51 in 2006, or a 275% increase. Over the same period, mortgage delinquency notices went up by 300%.

A dead crow in Northridge and a mosquito pool in Rowland Heights have tested positive for the West Nile virus, the first confirmed cases in Los Angeles County this year, vector control officials said Friday. But Robert Saviskas, the county vector control director, was quick to downplay the significance of the findings because testing so early in the year is unusual.

Since West Nile virus began to spread across North America in 1999, it has ravaged seven different bird populations, according to a study published today. Of the 20 species included in the study, American crows were the most affected, declining by as much as 45% in some regions from 1998 to 2005. Populations of American robins, chickadees, Eastern bluebirds, blue jays, tufted titmice and house wrens also dropped, the study said.

The number of West Nile virus infections in the U.S. rebounded last year, reaching the highest point since 2003, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. The CDC recorded nearly 4,300 West Nile cases, including about 1,500 patients who developed neuroinvasive disease -- a more severe form of infection that encompasses encephalitis, meningitis and muscle weakness or paralysis.

A dead bird found in San Bernardino last month carried the county's first reported case of West Nile virus of 2007, according to the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. The American Kestral, a small falcon, was collected in the 1000 block of Inland Center Drive and analyzed by UC Davis' Veterinary Diagnostic Lab. The virus is transmitted to people and animals by infected mosquitoes.

West Nile virus is off to an early start this year with reports of the disease in 26 California counties, prompting health officials to call on the public to take aggressive preventive measures. So far, Kern County leads in the number of cases reported of the mosquito-borne disease, with three people who have become ill and 41 dead birds that have tested positive for the virus.

An elderly Kern County woman has died from complications of West Nile, the first death in the state from the virus this year, public health officials said Friday. The virus, spread by infected mosquitoes, is of greatest danger to those older than 50, or people with diabetes and hypertension. The California Department of Public Health did not release information about the woman, but the Bakersfield Californian reported she was 96.

West Nile virus, spread by mosquitoes, has taken an early hold on parts of California this summer, sickening 27 people statewide compared with only five last year at this time. Unusually high temperatures throughout the state in March triggered an earlier start to the West Nile virus season than in other years.