A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official has predicted that the West Coast will be hit hard with West Nile virus (WNV) next year, particularly California.

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Lyle Peterson, MD, acting director of CDC’s division of vector-borne diseases, said in a speech Oct. 1 at the University of California’s Berkeley campus that the area of greatest concern for WNV human infection in 2004 probably would be the Imperial Valley in Southern California. The state will receive more money from the CDC to improve virus surveillance and public education.

Health officials believe that human cases erupt one vector-borne disease season after the virus first appears in the environment, and Imperial Valley will likely be a WNV hot spot because the virus first emerged in that area this season.

Colorado has been the epicenter for human cases of the virus in 2003. This year’s outbreak in the United States should be of the same magnitude as 2002’s, “which was the largest West Nile outbreak in the Western Hemisphere with 4,156 (human) cases and 284 deaths,” said the article