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PENNSYLVANIA'S
WEST NILE VIRUS SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM GETS AN ASSIST FROM NASA
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Recently,
NASA has contributed weather and climate data to assist Pennsylvania
state agencies in their response to the incidence of West
Nile Virus throughout the Keystone state.
Multiple
state agencies in Pennsylvania are working with NASA, the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, and other
federal agencies in an environmental and public health alliance
that is focusing on responding to the progress of West Nile
Virus as it spreads through counties. The PA West Nile Virus
Surveillance System (PAWNVSS) provides up-to-date information
on where infected mosquitoes, birds and humans have been reported
throughout the state.
Over
the last two years, the Pennsylvania Departments of Environmental
Protection (PA DEP), Health (PA DOH), and Agriculture (PDA)
built a geographic information system (GIS) with the assistance
of Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) software
and support, and NASA weather and climate data. The GIS mapping
system became a model for collecting data from the field,
laboratory and remote sensing images. Those data were combined
and used to create a map of the state, with county designations
that can indicate which counties West Nile Virus has been
reported in.
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The
PAWNVSS system was established so that counties could respond
with increased mosquito surveillance and control, pesticide
spraying and public notifications whenever the virus was found
within their borders.
The
Pennsylvania DOH collects dead birds; the DEP collects mosquitoes
and decides where to spray. "Surveillance data collected
from across the state is entered into the web-based database
and is used to guide the agencies in making decisions on issuing
public health alerts and mosquito control activities,"
said Eric Conrad of the PA DEP.
The
PAWNVSS supports data acquisition, laboratory forensics, decision
making/response and communications. Decision makers have tools
to view and analyze data from various different sources such
as environmental and veterinary data. The system also allows
the decision makers to communicate with the large numbers
of people responding to the same incident.
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Daily
results are posted by the system to both secure and public
websites. The secured website is updated at noon daily, and
used by 660 users in county governments. On a daily basis
at noon, representatives from the PA DEP, PA DOH and PDA review
and discuss current activity and then take actions such as
larviciding or spraying for adults.
By
2 p.m. Eastern daily the data are published on the Public
Website: www.westnile.state.pa.us in the form of a map of
the state and data tables with county outlines, so people
will know where West Nile Virus has been reported. The public
can go to the web site and subscribe to daily email alerts
from the database that will tell them where West Nile was
reported in Pennsylvania the day before.
West
Nile Virus is a mosquito transmitted disease that, as of Oct
2, has spread to 41 states, with 2530 human cases and 125
deaths. It is transmitted to humans when infected mosquitoes
bite them, injecting the virus into the blood. Symptoms begin
3-15 days after infection and can include fever, headache,
body aches, and possible rashes, which generally last a few
days. More serious cases may develop swelling of the brain
with fever, headache, disorientation, muscle weakness, neck
stiffness, and may slip into a coma and die.
"Our
initiative to contain the West Nile Virus is a cooperative
effort among several state agencies, as well as the federal
Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The help NASA has provided
in building this GIS system has been critical," Conrad
said. It is hoped that other states may use this database
to develop their own systems in the future.
The
PAWNVSS is an on-going project under the NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center's "Healthy Planet" program, part of
the larger NASA Public Health Applications Program (PHAP).
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