Eight die in outbreak of virus spread from birds

An outbreak of disease in New York City in August, which was originally diagnosed as St Louis encephalitis, has turned out to be West Nile-like virus, a virus never before found in the United States Previous outbreaks have occurred in Uganda, Israel, Romania and south Africa.

The health commissioner for New York state, Dr Antonia Novello, reported last week that 48 laboratory positive cases of West Nile-like virus had been identified. A total of eight people have died during the outbreak, …