For their summer internships, some students are participating in research that could save lives. Since 1975, when Indiana residents experienced an epidemic of viruses contracted through mosquito bites, students from around the state have had the opportunity to do research through the state-sponsored Disease Surveillance Program. Of the ten students chosen for the program this year, the Indiana State Department of Health chose six Ball State students.
Physiology and Health Science Department Chair Robert Pinger said that the internship is not just a research project, but a service to the state.
"Most of our students are working in the region," Pinger said. "For some of them, this is their second year participating in the research."
Pinger said that it is hard to tell if West Nile Virus will be a severe threat this year in Indiana but that recent storms in east central Indiana will definitely cause more mosquitoes to breed.
"Mosquitoes with WNV are those that breed in standing water from flooding or in organic or polluted areas," Pinger said. "There has been one mosquito that tested positive for WNV in the Marion County area."
Pinger said that student interns were responsible for the find but that humans generally don't contract WNV until the late summer or early fall. "Last year, there were 47 human cases of WNV in Indiana," Pinger said. "So far, nobody in the state has contracted the virus yet this season."
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, human WNV cases have been reported in Arizona, New Mexico, and South Dakota. A number of humans have contracted the Avian Flu and other animal or mosquito infections in 18 other states this summer.
Students participating in the Disease Surveillance Program study birds as well as mosquitoes, because birds can contract the disease as well, Pinger said.
Lissa Anderson-Smith just graduated from Ball State with a degree in Microbiology. She is interning with the ISDH before beginning her graduate work in the fall. Anderson-Smith said her research mainly consists of trapping and analyzing mosquitoes.
"I collect mosquitoes with light traps, which contain a light to attract the mosquitoes, as well as a fan and a net to trap them," Anderson-Smith said. "After I collect my traps, I take them home to sort and identify them."
Anderson-Smith said she is responsible for collecting and studying mosquitoes in the five counties ISDH assigned to her, including Madison, Tipton, Howard, Henry, and Wayne counties.
Dr. Michael Sinsko, senior medical entomologist for the ISDH runs the Disease Surveillance Program. He said it acts as an early warning system.
"The disease builds up in the mosquito populations and the bird population before we see it in humans," Sinsko said. "The purpose of the program is to track what is happening with West Nile and other viruses in the state of Indiana."
Sinsko said that the state has been conducting surveillance since 1977, but WNV become a priority with the health department since it recently entered the scene and began infecting humans.
When WNV appeared in the United States five years ago, Indiana already had a program in place to deal with the threat, and Ball State had a contract with the ISDH for student internships, Pinger said.
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