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As 2005 Mosquito Season Arrives With West Nile Virus Risk, NYHQ's Dr. Rahal, Nation's Foremost Expert, Available As Media Resource

Posted on: Tuesday, 16 August 2005, 15:01 CDT

QUEENS, N.Y., Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ --

WHO: James Rahal, MD, the nation's foremost expert on the West Nile virus, advises the region to heed CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and NYS Department of Health mosquito bite precautions. Topping the list for West Nile virus prevention is the use of insect repellents as a prophylactic. (For full list of precautions or a list of disease cases, go to http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/ or http://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/westnile/ .) WHAT: Nationally, there are 181 reported cases of human West Nile disease. In New York State, two men from Manhattan and a man from Putnam County have been infected with the virus and mosquito pools have been identified in the Bronx and other parts of New York. So far, there is no cure for West Nile virus. FYI: Dr. Rahal, Director of Infectious Disease at New York Hospital Queens, was one of the first physicians in the U.S. to identify the mosquito-borne disease pattern, which began infecting patients in Queens, New York, in 1999. Since then, he has been working on developing a cure for patients who are affected with the disease. In August 2002, Dr. Rahal was authorized by the FDA to start treating patients infected with the West Nile virus with a drug called alpha-interferon as part of a national trial. Since then, Dr. Rahal has found the drug to be a promising treatment. To determine the drug's definitive effectiveness, he began a double- blind, national study (http://nyhq.org/posting/rahal.html) last August and continues to enroll patients for that important study. NOTE TO EDITOR: James J. Rahal, MD, the Director of Infectious Disease at New York Hospital Queens, has a distinguished career that spans four decades. He was one of the first physicians in the U.S. to recognize the outbreak pattern of the West Nile virus in 1999 when it first began infecting patients in Queens and is now known as the nation's foremost expert on the West Nile virus. Dr. Rahal has received countless awards for teaching and research and prior to his work on the West Nile virus, he had been recognized internationally as the scientific leader who discovered and published his findings on the resistance of bacteria to antibiotics in the 1980s and 1990s. CONTACT: Paul Pickard - (718) 670-1491 Cynthia Bacon - (718) 670-2515

New York Hospital Queens

CONTACT: Paul Pickard, +1-718-670-1491, or Cynthia Bacon,+1-718-670-2515, both for New York Hospital Queens

Web site: http://www.nyhq.org/http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnilehttp://www.health.state.ny.us/nysdoh/westnilehttp://nyhq.org/posting/rahal.html

Source: PRNewswire

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