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The West Nile virus invades a host population, most often birds, and is transmitted by mosquitoes to humans and animals. No treatment or known vaccine has been developed yet for the virus.

Mona Faber, RN, said only one word describes what happened at Boulder (Colo.) Community Hospital this past summer: overwhelming. During the course of several months, the rooms on her floor filled up with patients young and old writhing in pain with severe headaches, nausea, fever and other symptoms.

"They were coming in one after the other," Faber said. "It got to the point where we would receive a new patient suffering from these symptoms and we'd know right away what it was."

The much-publicized and sometimes deadly mosquito-transmitted virus that was first detected in the United States in 1999 in New York continued its path westward this summer, hitting Nebraska, South Dakota and especially Colorado with a vengeance.

With mosquito season over, nurses and other health care professionals are taking stock of this latest round of the virus. Those who battled it on the frontlines have plenty of stories to tell, as well as a few suggestions to offer. Meanwhile, the larger medical community continues working to develop a vaccine against the virus and, in the months ahead, preparations of some kind most likely will begin in California-which some experts believe will be next summer's ground zero for West Nile.

The West Nile virus takes its name from the West Nile district of Uganda, where the virus was isolated in 1937 from the blood of a patient. Since then, it has made its way throughout Africa, West Asia, the Middle East and the United States. The virus invades a host population, most often birds, and is transmitted by mosquitoes to humans and animals. However, medical experts recently determined that the virus can be contracted through infected blood and organs. (They caution, however, that the virus remains in the bloodstream for only a short time and thus does not pose a great risk to blood supplies.)

No treatment or known vaccine has been developed yet for the virus, which usually passes after several days to a week. The best way to protect against it remains avoiding mosquito bites-which means plenty of bug spray and protective clothing. People infected with West Nile typically develop immunity to it and thus most likely will never have it again.

Most people afflicted with the West Nile virus either manifest no symptoms or develop mild, flulike difficulties such as fever, headache or body ache before fully recovering. For other patients, however, the symptoms may be more acute. They may endure swollen lymph nodes; a rash to the neck, trunk and extremities; high fever; stiff neck; loss of consciousness; muscle weakness; and severe abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. For those already weakened by old age or unrelated health problems, the virus can be fatal.

As the West Nile virus moved west this summer out of the Midwest and into the Western Plain states, the total number of people victimized grew. In 2002, officials reported nearly 4,200 human cases of the virus. With the final numbers still being tallied for 2003, more than 7,000 human cases have been reported.

In what can be considered good news, however, it appears that the virus will not be as deadly this year as it was a year ago. The death toll from West Nile last year was 284, according to the CDC. The latest CDC figures for 2003 show 152 fatalities.

Front Range frontlines

Just as one state, Illinois, stood head and shoulders above all others in reported cases and deaths last year, Colorado was far and away this year's hot spot. Colorado reported nearly 2,100 cases, more than twice the number of the next closest state, along with 42 deaths.

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