4AI
January 17,.
Sd iTech
THE BATTALION
5A
Thursday, January 17, 2002
Rare African virus coming to Texas
begins at
the Danny
the stage
AD
perform
p.m.
By Mandi Vest
THE BATTALION
I A new virus could be on its way
to Texas. West Nile encephalitis, a
■inis that affects birds, horses and
■umans and can be fatal, is expected
m> hit this area soon. Veterinarians
Be watching for signs of its arrival.
I This fatal bird disease originated
ii Uganda along the West Nile,
■vidence points to New York’s John
H. Kennedy Airport as the point of
entry for the virus to the United
Btates, said Dr. Ian Tizard, profes
sor of exotic bird health and
immunology at Texas A&M’s
College of Veterinary Medicine.
The discovery was made when 70
birds at a zoo in the Bronx were
found dead. A New York lab first
suspected the culprit to be St. Louis
encephalitis but later found the
virus to be a West Nile strain.
Tizard said the virus is spread
by mosquitoes and usually affects
larger birds, especially crows and
related species. But it can be
spread to horses and humans. The
only humans who have been
adversely affected by the virus
were more than 70 years old. Only
nine people were killed in the New
York and New Jersey areas by the
disease. But many people were
studied and showed signs of infec
tion without symptoms.
West Nile has been found along
the Eastern coast in Maine,
Michigan, Florida and Louisiana.
Tizard said it is making its way
along the Gulf Coast. The virus
spreads along water sources where
mosquitoes thrive. The recent find
ings in Louisiana are what have
Texas veterinarians on alert. East
Texas and along the Gulf Coast are
prime targets for West Nile, he said.
Birds have been the most hit by
West Nile, and Tizard said that
should be the focus of concern. “My
concern is what it will do to the wild
bird population,”he said. If several
dead birds are found in an area, it
could be that West Nile has arrived.
It is not likely though that this virus
could wipe out the bird population on
A&M’s campus, Tizard said, because
the disease is not spread from bird to
bird. Officials suggest contacting the
Texas Department of Health or the
Texas Animal Health Commission if
something suspicious is found. .
Tizard said the disease can be fatal
to horses and possibly other animals.
The Vet School is stocked with the
West Nile vaccine for horses if the
problem arises.
Irreemies show better behavior
Satellite
Schneider
at 9 p.m.
set to play
m. Cost is
I (AP) - Very small premature babies born
■i the late 1970s turned out less intelligent
than other youngsters their age, a study
found. But to researchers’ surprise, they got
jito less trouble as teens, perhaps because
| they had doting parents.
I As expected, the preemies in the study had
pleaming difficulties and persistent neurologi
cal problems while growing up. But they also
^ftported significantly less risky behavior as
I young adults than a comparison group.
1 Differences between the groups were found
■ when it came to the use of alcohol, marijuana
land other illegal drugs; conviction of a crime or
i^Bher contact with police; and. for girls, having
fHx and getting pregnant by age 20.
I “That was totally unexpected, because
j^Bere’s a lot of literature that criminality is
■ Blated to lower IQ,” said Dr. Maureen Hack,
the Stage | who led the study as director of the neonatal
I follow-up program at Rainbow Babies and
■ Children’s Hospital in Cleveland. She said the
I researchers thought the preemies would have
1 had more behavior problems.
I She said one possible explanatipn is that the
— — pfeemies’ parents saw their children as particu-
firly precious and watched over them more.
Dr. Henry Shapiro, chairman of the
American Academy of Pediatrics’ section on
nk
developmental pediatrics, said there is no evi
dence that the hypothesis is correct. But he said
the study could help policymakers better plan
for the medical and educational needs of pre
mature babies.
Infants of very low birth weight, 3.3 pounds or
less, account for 1 percent of all U.S. births, or
about 40,000 babies per year.
The babies in the study were bom at 29 weeks
and just over 2 1/2 pounds on average.
They were born between 1977 and 1979,
before neonatal intensive care units and special
ized technology were widely used to keep tiny
preemies alive. Today, lung treatments, breathing
machines, intravenous feeding and other technol
ogy enable some preemies as small as a pound to
survive, though with significant disabilities.
Hack said her findings would probably apply
to many of today’s premature infants.
Past research on premature babies found high
er rates of learning disabilities such as attention
deficit disorder and of neurological problems
such as cerebral palsy, blindness and deafness.
Earlier studies generally followed children
until school age. This study followed the preemies
until age 20 and examined their physical growth,
behavior and mental health as well as intelligence.
The research was reported in Thursday’s
New England Journal of Medicine.
Preemies fare well as teen-agers
A study found that babies born prematurely were less likely to
engage in risky behavior during adolescence than their counterparts
of normal birth weight. The preemies, all born from 1977 through
1979, had more learning and neurological problems but fewer
behavioral problems overall.
Percentage of 20 year olds reporting risk behavior
H Low birth weight Q Normal birth weight
Men Women
Tobacco use
l 59 i
48 1
A Ieoh
ol use
■£■■■■■■■ 7?
■■■■■■■_ |
83 1
Illicit drug use
■■■■30
53
1 44
Violation of law
(excluding tratlic tickets)
mwBM* 7
^^■24
' 52 1
23 1
Crime conviction
(includes driving while intoxicated)
H 1
1 * • 27 |
t 3 |
Incarc
e ration
■ ' 1
26 - |
1 6
Pregnancy
(ior men. pregnancy oi partner)
^■^■29
23
i- • 41 |
SOURCE. New England Journal of Medicine
AIDS vaccine
monkey dies
(AP) - In a study that illustrates how
cunning a foe AIDS is, a monkey that
was given an experimental AIDS vaccine
died after the virus changed just one of
its genes.
HIV, which causes AIDS, already is
known to mutate and grow impervious to
standard AIDS drugs in at least half of all
Americans being treated for the infection.
Now researchers have seen a similar
outcome with an experimental vaccine
that tries to stop the virus from multiply
ing. The mutation occurred in one of
eight vaccinated rhesus monkeys in a
Harvard experiment.
The findings were published in
Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.
Scientists who reviewed the results
described the monkey’s death as “more
disappointing than surprising.”
It does not mean that AIDS vaccines are
doomed to fail, they said, but illustrates
how the virus will not be easily defeated or
even contained anytime soon.
“It is sobering to find that a single
point mutation within the virus can initi
ate a cascade of events resulting in a
clinical vaccine failure and death,” said
Dan H. Barouch, a clinical fellow at
Harvard Medical School and lead author
of the study.
More than one dozen experimental
vaccines using different genetic strate
gies have been tested in various laborato
ries. Some have been successful for more
than two years.
Unlike a flu shot, AIDS vaccines do not
actually prevent infection by the invading
virus. That is because HIV comes in many
strains and changes rapidly.
Instead, the AIDS vaccines work to
hold HIV infection in check. The vaccines
are made with genes that carry the code for
proteins in the virus. When the immune
system sees these codes, it learns to stimu
late production of virus-fighting cells
known as killer T cells.
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