Health Department Biweekly Reports Folder 0066, 2000-2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

THE CITY OF NEW YORK FF8 0 b 2000 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 01—o 0.1 OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER DEPUTY MAYOR OPERATION'

125 WORTH STREET (j NEAL L COHEN, M.D. COMMISSIONER 788-5261 TEL (212) NEW YORK, NY 10013 FAX (21 2) 964-0472 NYGGOV/HEALTH

February 7, 2001

TO: Honorable Rudolph W. Giuliani MAYOR

FROM: Neal L. Cohen, M.D. Commissioner

SUBJECT: Bi-weekly Report -- (January 14 — January 27)

NOTEWORTHY ITEMS

WNV Serosurvey Results Announced On January 25, the Health Department announced the results of the door-to- door West Nile virus (WNV) survey of households on Staten Island that took place in October 2000. The survey was conducted by the Health Department with the assistance of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help estimate the percentage of people who were infected with the virus, and what their symptoms were, if any. Similar surveys also took place in the fall of 2000 in Suffolk County, New York, and Fairfield County, Connecticut. A summary of findings from these surveys appears in the January 26, 2001, issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Four of the 871 people who volunteered to be interviewed as part of the Staten Island survey tested positive for West Nile virus. From these results, the Health Department estimates that approximately 0.5% of Staten Island residents age 12 and older were infected with West Nile virus in 2000, which translates into an estimated 1,574 Staten Island residents. While the results of this survey cannot be projected onto New York City as a whole, it is estimated that West Nile virus infection rates elsewhere in New York City were probably lower because fewer humans, birds, and mosquitoes tested positive for the virus in other boroughs in 2000, compared to Staten Island.

NYC-WTC 000138100