Epidemic West Nile Conditions Declared In Local County

LOS ANGELES -- State health officials declared "epidemic conditions" in San Bernardino County, where eight cases of West Nile virus have been confirmed this month.

The state Department of Health Services issued the alert Wednesday, the first in California for the mosquito-borne disease.

The definition of epidemic is "more cases than you would expect in a given place at a given time" and is meant to promote public health actions such as spraying mosquito areas with insecticide, said Vicki Kramer, chief of the department's vector borne disease section.

County crews Friday were to spray some Fontana neighborhoods where six of the eight cases were found.

The spray, commercially known as Scourge, is safe for humans at low levels but at higher levels can cause symptoms ranging from headaches and nausea to convulsions and unconsciousness.

San Bernardino County has had the only West Nile cases in the state this year. However, there could be hundreds of California cases cropping up this summer, said John Roehrig of the federal Centers for Disease Control in Colorado.

The latest case, reported Wednesday, was a 75-year-old Rialto woman who had been hospitalized with meningitis after probably being bitten by an infected mosquito.

West Nile arrived in California in late summer last year. The disease can cause flu-like symptoms. It is rarely fatal, although more than 260 people died nationwide last year.

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