West Nile Virus Found in R.I.

Tuesday, August 15th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WARWICK, R.I. (AP) â€” Environmental officials announced plans Monday to spray insecticide in a two-mile radius where researchers found a dead crow with West Nile virus, the first time the virus was detected in Rhode Island.

Four trucks will spray more than 200 miles of streets in Warwick and Cranston starting Tuesday night at the earliest.

State environmental officials said they expected to find the virus in Rhode Island because it already has been detected in Connecticut and Massachusetts. It has also been found this year in New Jersey and Maryland.

No one in Rhode Island has been infected. Three New York City residents contracted the illness this summer and have been recovering.

The virus is commonly carried by bloodsucking mosquitoes, which transmit the virus through bites. Infection may result in encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain, or meningitis, an inflammation of the brain's lining and the spinal cord.

Last summer, during the first known appearance of the West Nile virus in the Western Hemisphere, seven people died and 62 others were infected in the New York metropolitan area.

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On the Net

www.state.ri.us/dem

www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/index.htm

www.health.state.ri.us