“This is the largest arboviral (disease) epidemic ever documented in the Western Hemisphere,” said Sue Billings, DVM, MSPH, Kentucky Department for Public Health Medical Epidemiologist. Billings has been working with the public health side of West Nile virus (WNV) surveillance since the virus first appeared in mosquitoes, birds, and horses in Kentucky in 2001. Billings attended a recent WNV conference in New Orleans, La., gaining insight on the new methods of transmission in humans.

In 2002, a total of 693 positive birds were found in 101 counties in Kentucky. The large volume of submissions prompted officials to only allow counties without positive birds to continue turning in birds for testing. Positive mosquito collections were found in nine Kentucky counties

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