Horse in Champaign County Tests Positive for West Nile Virus

First Mammal in the County to Test Positive for the Disease This Year

Public Health learned this week that a horse in Champaign County has tested positive for the West Nile virus. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, the horse was first reported to state authorities on September 20, and test results were released this week. A bulletin from the health department describes the horse as “symptomatic.” No other details are available.

Horses, like humans, become infected via bites from mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus. There have been no known cases of transmission of the disease from mammal to mammal, bird to bird, or bird to mammal.

Horse owners may try to prevent infection in their horses with a West Nile virus vaccine. The vaccine, approved in 2001, is available only through veterinarians.

Counts of mosquitoes or animals infected with West Nile in Champaign County this year have been low: Only four batches of mosquitoes have tested positive for the virus, along with two crows and – now – one horse. There have been no cases in Champaign County of West Nile infection in humans this year.

Other counties have been hit much harder. Cook County has reported 1,334 positive mosquito pools and 70 crows and blue jays with West Nile virus. Cook County has had 108 cases of West Nile infection in humans this year. Two people with West Nile in Cook County have died.

Across the state, there have been 175 cases of West Nile in humans. A total of three people have died of the infection. Most of the human cases, and all of the deaths so far in Illinois, have been in the northeastern part of the state.

Illinois has the third-highest number of human cases of West Nile virus this year in the U.S., behind California and South Dakota.

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Download 2005-09-27-Horse-WNV-PR

This month the East Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging nominated the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District division of Community Health Nursing for the 2005 Governor’s Unique Achievement Award. The state gives the award to nominees from each district of the Illinois Department on Aging. The Health District Community Health Nursing Division is the selected nominee of the East Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging.

Since 1937, the division of Community Health Nursing has brought an array of services to those in need, with an emphasis on providing vital support to seniors. Since 1996 the division has also served seniors throughout Champaign County – with support from the Champaign County Public Health Department.

The nomination letter (attached) cited the Community Health nurses’ work to help older adults “age in place” in their homes and in the community. Between August 2004 and August 2005, the five nurses in the division made 3,420 home visits to older adults in need of medication management, advocacy or referrals to other services. Medication management includes filling medication containers and syringes and monitoring prescriptions to reduce errors and increase each client’s adherence to his or her treatment plan.

The letter recognized the nurses’ services to older adults who have diabetes or two or more other major medical diagnoses. It noted their services to African Americans and to older adults who are in the greatest social and economic need.

The East Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging also recognized the Community Health Nursing Division for:

• Offering regular clinics for blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol checks and immunizations.
• Working as active members of the Champaign County Mental Health & Aging Coalition (initiated by the East Central Illinois Area Agency on Aging) to increase senior awareness that “depression is not a normal part of aging.” The “Lemonade Stand,” a project of the Coalition, offers free lemonade to seniors as a way of engaging them in conversation about how to navigate life’s ups and downs.
• Providing monthly support groups for seniors with diabetes in congregate housing facilities.
• Working with allied health care professionals, including pharmacists, to review seniors’ medicines.
  

Health District representatives will receive the award October 5, 2005. The nomination letter is attached.