Studying Disease Vectors - West Nile Virus

West Nile Virus was first found in the United States in New York City during the summer of 1999. Since then, cases have been documented across the continental United States. It is important to study disease transmission such as WNV because it can help scientists determine how infectious diseases originate, how they spread from one species to another and why cases spike and practically disappear depending on the time of the year.