West Nile Virus (a virus)

West Nile virus (WNV) is a potential serious threat to birds and human health in Hawaii. As of this writing (06 February 2008), West Nile Virus is not known to have reached Hawaii. (Please contact webmaster@hawaii.edu if this information needs updating!)  

Species description or overview

Dispersal and pathways

West Nile virus information from the Hawaii State Department of Health
The Hawaii State Department of Health (HDOH) provides recommendations and information about reporting dead birds and prevention. DOH also provides an online brochure on WNV.

Prevention measures recommended based on risk assessment of pathways 
Dr. Peter Daszak (Executive Director, Consortium for Conservation Medicine, Wildlife Trust) recommends immediate implementation of preventive measures based on of the results of a meeting January 2004 workshop (Honolulu) a risk assessment of the pathways by which the virus might be introduced to Hawaii.

Distribution

In the news

Maui bird did not have West Nile virus
A bird on Maui suspected to have West Nile virus did not, in fact, carry the virus, according to this 20 September 2004 Honolulu Advertiser article.

Deadly West Nile virus may be on Maui
"A dead sparrow found on Maui carried the West Nile virus in its blood, according to preliminary tests that must be verified, state Health Department officials said.... If confirmed, it would be the first case in the Islands of West Nile virus, a potentially deadly illness that can be transmitted from mosquitoes to humans."

Full-text articles

Workshop/conference proceedings

Other resources

Search the web for information on the West Nile virus
This link will return results from a web search for information about the West Nile virus.

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The Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk (HEAR) project is currently funded by the Pacific Basin Information Node (PBIN) of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) through PIERC (USGS) with support from HCSU (UH-Hilo). More details are available online.

The template for this page was created on 15 March 2004 by EMS, and was last updated on 20 February 2006 by PT. The content of this page was last regenerated on (or after) 28 March 2008 by PT.