Uptake of meningococcal vaccine in Arizona schoolchildren after implementation of school-entry immunization requirements.

Objectives: Meningitis and bacteremia due to Neisseria meningitidis are rare but potentially deadly diseases that can be prevented with immunization. Beginning in 2008, Arizona school immunization requirements were amended to include immunization of children aged 11 years or older with meningococcal vaccine before entering the sixth grade. We describe patterns in meningococcal vaccine uptake surrounding these school-entry requirement changes in Arizona.

Vector host-feeding preferences drive transmission of multi-host pathogens: West Nile virus as a model system.

Seasonal epizootics of vector-borne pathogens infecting multiple species are ecologically complex and difficult to forecast. Pathogen transmission potential within the host community is determined by the relative abilities of host species to maintain and transmit the pathogen and by ecological factors influencing contact rates between hosts and vectors. Increasing evidence of strong feeding preferences by a number of vectors suggests that the host community experienced by the pathogen may be very different from the local host community.

Avian communal roosts as amplification foci for West Nile virus in urban areas in northeastern United States.

West Nile virus (WNV) perpetuates in an enzootic transmission cycle involving Culex mosquitoes and virus-competent avian hosts. In the northeastern United States, the enzootic vectors, Cx. pipiens and Cx.

Avian host-selection by Culex pipiens in experimental trials.

Evidence from field studies suggests that Culex pipiens, the primary mosquito vector of West Nile virus (WNV) in the northeastern and north central United States, feeds preferentially on American robins (Turdus migratorius). To determine the contribution of innate preferences to observed preference patterns in the field, we conducted host preference trials with a known number of adult female C. pipiens in outdoor cages comparing the relative attractiveness of American robins with two common sympatric bird species, European starling, Sternus vulgaris and house sparrow, Passer domesticus.

Emergency mosquito aerial spray response to the 2004 Florida hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne: an overview of control results.

In total, 43 aerial spray missions were conducted in 26 Florida counties to control mosquito populations after each of the 4 hurricanes making landfall in Florida in 2004. Mosquitoes were trapped before and after each spray mission to determine the percentage (%) of control for the West Nile virus vector Culex nigripalpus (64.1%), the floodwater pest mosquito Psorophora columbiae (69.