U.S. Recommends More
Repellents to Fight West Nile

U.S. health officials on Thursday recommended two more mosquito repellent ingredients, one of them a plant oil, to fight the West Nile virus after years of favoring the chemical DEET.

With the virus now in 47 of the 48 continental U.S. states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control put the chemical picaridin and oil of lemon eucalyptus on its list of ingredients to ward off West Nile-carrying mosquitoes.

Doctors have no treatment for the sometimes fatal disease and mosquito repellents are considered the top weapon against it. But studies have found only about 40 percent of people use repellents -- even fewer in California, which had 771 cases last year, the highest number of any U.S. state.

CDC officials said they hope the recommended ingredients, which have been used elsewhere in the world for years, will increase the likelihood that Americans will use repellents to protect against West Nile, which killed 88 people in the country last year.

"We're hoping that by consumers having more options available ... they'll find something they really like to use," Dr. Emily Zielinski-Gutierrez, a CDC scientist, said during a telephone news conference.

West Nile, which is common in north Africa and parts of Europe and the Middle East, appeared in the United States in 1999 and quickly spread across the continent. Last year 2,470 cases were reported to the CDC.

Eighty percent of people who are infected with West Nile show no signs of it, while 20 percent have symptoms such as fever, headache, nausea and vomiting. About 1 in 150 will become severely ill, which could include high fever, stupor, coma, convulsions, muscle weakness, vision loss and paralysis.

Picaridin has been an ingredient in repellents in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia for years, and can be as effective as DEET, the CDC said.

Oil of lemon eucalyptus, likely to be favored by people who don't like to put chemicals on their skin or dislike the odor of DEET, is as effective as low-concentration DEET products, the health agency said.

Reference Source 89
April 28 , 2005


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