West Nile Virus in the United States (1999–2005)

2006 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 170-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reid Gerhardt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
West Nile Virus ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
West Nile ◽  
Dead End ◽  
Native Birds ◽  
Accidental Introduction

The accidental introduction of West Nile Virus into New York City from the Old World in 1999 resulted in an epidemic in humans, horses, and birds that swept to the west coast in just 3 years. The virus is transmitted by infective mosquitoes among susceptible native birds, which serve as amplifying hosts. Clinical disease occurs in humans and horses, but not enough virus is produced in their blood to infect other mosquitoes; therefore, humans and horses are considered dead-end hosts. Humans can best protect themselves by remaining indoors during periods of high mosquito activity and/or by using recommended repellents. Effective vaccines are available for horses.

scholarly journals Immunoglobulin G Avidity in Differentiation between Early and Late Antibody Responses to West Nile Virus

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet L. Fox ◽  
Stuart L. Hazell ◽  
Leslie H. Tobler ◽  
Michael P. Busch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
West Nile Virus ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immunoglobulin M ◽  
West Nile ◽  
Marked Rise ◽  
Igm Antibodies ◽  
Igg Avidity ◽  
Igg Level

ABSTRACT In 1999 West Nile virus (WNV) surfaced in the United States in the city of New York and spread over successive summers to most of the continental United States, Canada, and Mexico. Because WNV immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies have been shown to persist for up to 1 year, residents in areas of endemicity can have persistent WNV IgM antibodies that are unrelated to a current illness with which they present. We present data on the use of IgG avidity testing for the resolution of conflicting data arising from the testing of serum or plasma for antibodies to WNV. Thirteen seroconversion panels, each consisting of a minimum of four samples, were used. All samples were tested for the presence of WNV IgM and IgG antibodies, and the avidity index for the WNV IgG-positive samples was calculated. Panels that exhibited a rise in the WNV IgM level followed by a sequential rise in the WNV IgG level were designated “primary.” Panels that exhibited a marked rise in the WNV IgG level followed by a sequential weak WNV IgM response and that had serological evidence of a prior flavivirus infection were designated “secondary.” All samples from the “primary” panels exhibited low avidity indices (less than 40%) for the first 20 to 30 days after the recovery of the index sample (the sample found to be virus positive). All of the “secondary” samples had elevated WNV IgG levels with avidity indices of ≥55%, regardless of the number of days since the recovery of the index sample. These data demonstrate that it is possible to differentiate between recent and past exposure to WNV or another flavivirus through the measurement of WNV IgG avidity indices.

Anatomy of an Addict: Junie McCree and the Vaudeville Dope Fiend

2019 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-284
Author(s):  
Max Shulman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Progressive Era ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cultural Impact ◽  
The West ◽  
National Debate ◽  
Slow Moving ◽  
Standard Character

In 1900, performer Junie McCree debuted a new character on the stage of vaudeville theatres in New York City. In a short playlet written by McCree entitled The Dope Fiend; or, Sappho in Chinatown, the actor took to the stage in a black suit, fedora, and thick mustache to perform a comic version of an opium-smoking addict from the West of the United States. McCree's addict was marked by his slumped posture, his wisecracks and chicanery, and a broad assortment of inventive slang that was intended as a sign of the character's frontier roots. Undermining expectations regarding addicts as vicious or subhuman, this vaudeville dope fiend was charming in his insouciance and playfully eccentric in behavior. McCree's interpretation was distinct from the already established stage drunk or tramp clown; he was not sloppy or bedraggled, but more the figure of a slow-moving but cunning saloon poet. McCree quickly became famous for the portrayal, spawning numerous imitators who helped make the vaudeville dope fiend a standard character convention, recognizable to Progressive Era audiences of variety entertainment, but almost entirely ignored by modern scholarship. Dissecting the anatomy of McCree's characterization, including its sources and cultural impact, this article argues for the inclusion of the comic dope fiend in the pantheon of stage characters from the period and calls attention to popular entertainment's contribution to the national debate over drug addiction.

scholarly journals Pathology of Fatal West Nile Virus Infections in Native and Exotic Birds during the 1999 Outbreak in New York City, New York

2000 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. E. Steele ◽  
M. J. Linn ◽  
R. J. Schoepp ◽  
N. Komar ◽  
T. W. Geisbert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
In Situ Hybridization ◽  
West Nile Virus ◽  
York City ◽  
Virus Infections ◽  
West Nile ◽  
The Brain

West Nile fever caused fatal disease in humans, horses, and birds in the northeastern United States during 1999. We studied birds from two wildlife facilities in New York City, New York, that died or were euthanatized and were suspected to have West Nile virus infections. Using standard histologic and ultrastructural methods, virus isolation, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization and reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, we identified West Nile virus as the cause of clinical disease, severe pathologic changes, and death in 27 birds representing eight orders and 14 species. Virus was detected in 23/26 brains (88%), 24/25 hearts (96%), 15/18 spleens (83%), 14/20 livers (70%), 20/20 kidneys (100%), 10/13 adrenals (77%), 13/14 intestines (93%), 10/12 pancreata (83%), 5/12 lungs (42%), and 4/8 ovaries (50%) by one or more methods. Cellular targets included neurons and glial cells in the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral ganglia; myocardial fibers; macrophages and blood monocytes; renal tubular epithelium; adrenal cortical cells; pancreatic acinar cells and islet cells; intestinal crypt epithelium; oocytes; and fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells. Purkinje cells were especially targeted, except in crows and magpies. Gross hemorrhage of the brain, splenomegaly, menin-goencephalitis, and myocarditis were the most prominent lesions. Immunohistochemistry was an efficient and reliable method for identifying infected cases, but the polyclonal antibody cross-reacted with St. Louis encephalitis virus and other flaviviruses. In contrast, the in situ hybridization probe pWNV-E (WN-USAMRIID99) reacted only with West Nile virus. These methods should aid diagnosticians faced with the emergence of West Nile virus in the United States.

The West Nile Virus Encephalitis Outbreak in the United States (1999-2000)

2006 ◽  
Vol 951 (1) ◽  
pp. 161-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEBORAH S. ASNIS ◽  
RICK CONETTA ◽  
GLENN WALDMAN ◽  
ALEX A. TEIXEIRA
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
West Nile Virus ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
West Nile ◽  
Virus Encephalitis ◽  
West Nile Virus Encephalitis

Gerald H. Thayer's ornithological work in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Lesser Antilles

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Wiley
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
West Indies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
American Museum ◽  
The West ◽  
Comparative Zoology ◽  
North And South America ◽  
North And South

Gerald Handerson Thayer (1883–1939) was an artist, writer and naturalist who worked in North and South America, Europe and the West Indies. In the Lesser Antilles, Thayer made substantial contributions to the knowledge and conservation of birds in St Vincent and the Grenadines. Thayer observed and collected birds throughout much of St Vincent and on many of the Grenadines from January 1924 through to December 1925. Although he produced a preliminary manuscript containing interesting distributional notes and which is an early record of the region's ornithology, Thayer never published the results of his work in the islands. Some 413 bird and bird egg specimens have survived from his work in St Vincent and the Grenadines and are now housed in the American Museum of Natural History (New York City) and the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Four hundred and fifty eight specimens of birds and eggs collected by Gerald and his father, Abbott, from other countries are held in museums in the United States.

Applying the Devil's Works in a Holy Cause: Working-Class Popular Culture and the Salvation Army in the United States, 1879-1900

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-223
Author(s):  
Lillian Taiz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
York City ◽  
The United States ◽  
Salvation Army ◽  
Public Meeting ◽  
The Many ◽  
Sunday Evening

Forty-eight hours after they landed in New York City in 1880, a small contingent of the Salvation Army held their first public meeting at the infamous Harry Hill's Variety Theater. The enterprising Hill, alerted to the group's arrival from Britain by newspaper reports, contacted their leader, Commissioner George Scott Railton, and offered to pay the group to “do a turn” for “an hour or two on … Sunday evening.” In nineteenth-century New York City, Harry Hill's was one of the best known concert saloons, and reformers considered him “among the disreputable classes” of that city. His saloon, they said, was “nothing more than one of the many gates to hell.”

Mafias on the Move

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Varese
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
The United States ◽  
The West ◽  
Market Expansion ◽  
The North ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
At Will

Organized crime is spreading like a global virus as mobs take advantage of open borders to establish local franchises at will. That at least is the fear, inspired by stories of Russian mobsters in New York, Chinese triads in London, and Italian mafias throughout the West. As this book explains, the truth is more complicated. The author has spent years researching mafia groups in Italy, Russia, the United States, and China, and argues that mafiosi often find themselves abroad against their will, rather than through a strategic plan to colonize new territories. Once there, they do not always succeed in establishing themselves. The book spells out the conditions that lead to their long-term success, namely sudden market expansion that is neither exploited by local rivals nor blocked by authorities. Ultimately the inability of the state to govern economic transformations gives mafias their opportunity. In a series of matched comparisons, the book charts the attempts of the Calabrese 'Ndrangheta to move to the north of Italy, and shows how the Sicilian mafia expanded to early twentieth-century New York, but failed around the same time to find a niche in Argentina. The book explains why the Russian mafia failed to penetrate Rome but succeeded in Hungary. A pioneering chapter on China examines the challenges that triads from Taiwan and Hong Kong find in branching out to the mainland. This book is both a compelling read and a sober assessment of the risks posed by globalization and immigration for the spread of mafias.

scholarly journals 338. Analysis of Etiologies of Aseptic Meningitis within a Nation-Wide Hospital Network

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S239-S239
Author(s):  
Arunmozhi S Aravagiri ◽  
Scott Kubomoto ◽  
Ayutyanont Napatkamon ◽  
Sarah Wilson ◽  
Sudhakar Mallela
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
West Nile Virus ◽  
Aseptic Meningitis ◽  
Epidemiologic Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Positive Test ◽  
Diagnostic Tools ◽  
West Nile ◽  
Varicella Zoster ◽  
The Us

Abstract Background Aseptic meningitis can be caused by an array of microorganisms, both bacterial and non-bacterial, as well as non-infectious conditions. Some etiologies of aseptic meningitis require treatment with antibiotics, antiviral, antifungals, anti-parasitic agents, immunosuppressants, and or chemotherapy. There are limited diagnostic tools for diagnosing certain types of aseptic meningitis, therefore knowing the differential causes of aseptic meningitis, and their relative percentages may assist in diagnosis. Review of the literature reveals that there are no recent studies of etiologies of aseptic meningitis in the United States (US). This is an epidemiologic study to delineate etiologies of aseptic meningitis in a large database of 185 HCA hospitals across the US. Methods Data was collected from January 2016 to December 2019 on all patients diagnosed with meningitis. CSF PCR studies, and CSF antibody tests were then selected for inclusion. Results Total number of encounters were 3,149 hospitalizations. Total number of individual labs analyzed was 10,613, and of these 262 etiologies were identified. 23.6% (62) of cases were due to enterovirus, 18.7% (49) due to HSV-2, 14.5% (38) due to West Nile virus, 13.7% (36) due to Varicella zoster (VZV), 10.5% (27) due to Cryptococcus. Additionally, we analyzed the rate of positive test results by region. Nationally, 9.7% of tests ordered for enterovirus were positive. In contrast, 0.5% of tests ordered for HSV 1 were positive. The southeastern United States had the highest rate of positive tests for HSV 2 (7% of tests ordered for HSV 2 were positive). The central United States had the highest rate of positive test for West Nile virus (11% of tests ordered for West Nile were positive). The northeastern region and the highest rate of positive tests for varicella zoster (18%). Table 1: Percentage of positive CSF tests (positive tests/tests ordered) Table 2: Lists the number of HIV patients and transplant patients that had positive CSF PCR/serologies Figure 1: Percentage of positive CSF tests in each region Conclusion Approximately 40% of aseptic meningitis population had treatable etiologies. A third of the Cryptococcus meningitis population had HIV. Furthermore, enteroviruses had the majority of cases within the US, which are similar to studies done in other parts of the world. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

scholarly journals Evolving oxygenation management reasoning in COVID-19

Diagnosis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-383
Author(s):  
Steven Liu ◽  
Cara Sweeney ◽  
Nalinee Srisarajivakul-Klein ◽  
Amanda Klinger ◽  
Irina Dimitrova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
Initial Phase ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Hypoxemic Respiratory Failure ◽  
Hospital Wards

AbstractThe initial phase of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the United States saw rapidly-rising patient volumes along with shortages in personnel, equipment, and intensive care unit (ICU) beds across many New York City hospitals. As our hospital wards quickly filled with unstable, hypoxemic patients, our hospitalist group was forced to fundamentally rethink the way we triaged and managed cases of hypoxemic respiratory failure. Here, we describe the oxygenation protocol we developed and implemented in response to changing norms for acuity on inpatient wards. By reflecting on lessons learned, we re-evaluate the applicability of these oxygenation strategies in the evolving pandemic. We hope to impart to other providers the insights we gained with the challenges of management reasoning in COVID-19.

Values of Voluntary Simplicity: Lifestyle and Motivation

1984 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avraham Shama ◽  
Joseph Wisenblit
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Voluntary Simplicity ◽  
Ecological Responsibility ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
And Behavior

This paper describes the relation between values and behavior of a new life style, that of voluntary simplicity which is characterized by low consumption, self-sufficiency, and ecological responsibility. Also, specific hypotheses regarding the motivation for voluntary simplicity and adoption in two areas of the United States were tested. Analysis shows (a) values of voluntary simplicity and behaviors are consistent, (b) the motivation for voluntary simplicity includes personal preference and economic hardship, and (c) adoption of voluntary simplicity is different in the Denver and New York City metropolitan areas.

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