The New York State Arthri­tis Pro­gram was cre­ated to help New York­ers learn how to bet­ter man­age their dis­ease. The pro­gram has part­nered with a vari­ety of orga­ni­za­tions to bet­ter inform the pub­lic about arthri­tis and how to live with the dis­ease more effec­tively and com­fort­ably. In New York State, approx­i­mately 3.7 mil­lion (26.1%) adults live with arthri­tis and, of those, nearly 56% of New York adults aged 65 years and older, or 1.4 mil­lion, have arthri­tis. In 2003, the total direct and indi­rect costs of arthri­tis care in New York were $8.7 bil­lion. These num­bers are expected to increase as the state’s pop­u­la­tion con­tin­ues to age.

What are arbovi­ral infections?

Arbovi­ral (short for arthropod-borne) infec­tions are caused by any num­ber of viruses trans­mit­ted by arthro­pods such as mos­qui­toes and ticks. These infec­tions gen­er­ally occur dur­ing warm weather months, when mos­qui­toes and ticks are active.

Who gets arbovi­ral infections?

Any­one can get an arbovi­ral infec­tion but the elderly appear to be most sus­cep­ti­ble. Young chil­dren may expe­ri­ence more severe ill­ness with east­ern equine encephali­tis and cer­tain types of Cal­i­for­nia encephalitis.

How are arbovi­ral infec­tions transmitted?

Most arbovi­ral infec­tions are spread by infected mos­qui­toes. For­tu­nately, only a few types of mos­qui­toes are capa­ble of trans­mit­ting dis­ease and only a small num­ber of the mos­qui­toes will actu­ally be car­ry­ing a virus at any one time. Occa­sion­ally, migrat­ing birds have the abil­ity to carry viruses from one area of the coun­try to another; humans, how­ever, can­not become infected by birds, only mos­qui­toes. Some arbovi­ral infec­tions, such as Powas­san encephali­tis, may be trans­mit­ted by infected ticks.

What are the symp­toms of arbovi­ral infections?

Symp­toms of the var­i­ous types of viral infec­tions trans­mit­ted by mos­qui­toes and ticks are usu­ally sim­i­lar, except for their sever­ity. Most infec­tions do not result in any symp­toms. Mild cases may occur with only a slight fever and/or headache and body­aches and resolve with no com­pli­ca­tions. Severe infec­tions are marked by a rapid onset, headache, high fever, dis­ori­en­ta­tion, tremors, con­vul­sions, paral­y­sis, coma or death.

When do symp­toms appear?

Symp­toms usu­ally occur three to 15 days after a bite from an infected mos­quito or tick.

Does past infec­tion with an arbovirus make a per­son immune?

Infec­tion with an arbovirus may pro­vide immu­nity to that spe­cific virus and per­haps to related viruses.

What is the treat­ment for an infec­tion due to an arbovirus?

Health care providers will usu­ally attempt to relieve the symp­toms of the ill­ness, but there is no spe­cific treat­ment avail­able for arbovi­ral infections.

How can arbovi­ral infec­tions be prevented?

To min­i­mize exposed skin, insect repel­lents con­tain­ing DEET can be used by per­sons spend­ing time out­doors in mos­quito– or tick-infested areas. Be sure to fol­low label direc­tions care­fully. Con­sider wear­ing long sleeves and tuck­ing pants into socks and shirt into pants when in tick habi­tat or out­doors at dusk or dawn, the time of day when mos­qui­toes are most active. Wear light-colored clothes to spot ticks easily.

To reduce the mos­quito pop­u­la­tion around your home and prop­erty, reduce or elim­i­nate all stand­ing water:
•Dis­pose of tin cans, plas­tic con­tain­ers, ceramic pots or sim­i­lar water-holding con­tain­ers.
•Remove and recy­cle all dis­carded tires on your prop­erty. Used tires are a sig­nif­i­cant mosquito-breeding site.
•Drill holes in the bot­toms of recy­cling con­tain­ers that are kept out­doors.
•Make sure roof gut­ters drain prop­erly and clean clogged gut­ters in the spring and fall.
•Remove leaf debris from yards and gar­dens.
•Turn over wad­ing pools and wheel­bar­rows when not in use.
•Change the water in bird­baths twice weekly.
•Clean veg­e­ta­tion and debris from edges of ponds.
•Clean and chlo­ri­nate swim­ming pools, out­door saunas and hot tubs.
•Drain water from pool cov­ers.
•Use land­scap­ing to elim­i­nate stand­ing water that col­lects on your prop­erty.
•Make sure win­dow and door screens fit prop­erly and are in good condition.

Judi­cious Use of Antibiotics

Hand Hygiene and Hos­pi­tal Dis­in­fec­tants
•C the DIF­Fer­ence Hand­wash­ing Can Make!
•Dear Infec­tion Con­trol Spe­cial­ist: Hand Hygiene and Hos­pi­tal Dis­in­fec­tant Charts (PDF, 18KB, 1pg.)
•Hand Hygiene Anti­sep­tic Agents in the Hos­pi­tal Set­ting (PDF, 727KB, 1pg.)
•Hos­pi­tal Dis­in­fec­tants for Gen­eral Dis­in­fec­tion of Envi­ron­men­tal Sur­faces (PDF, 715KB, 1pg.)

Oti­tis Media
•Intro­duc­tion
•Guide­lines and Evidence-Based Medicine

Edu­ca­tional Mate­ri­als
•Antibi­otic Resis­tance Edu­ca­tional Book­mark
•Antibi­otic Resis­tance Exam Room Poster (PDF, 484KB, 1pg.)

Oti­tis Media (Ear Infec­tions) — Brochures, Guide­lines, and Toolkit
•Ear Infec­tion in Chil­dren — A brochure for par­ents
An ear infec­tion is one of the most fre­quent rea­sons par­ents take a child to see a doc­tor. This brochure will help you under­stand this dis­ease and the treat­ment meth­ods that may be sug­gested by your child’s doc­tor or health care­giver.
•A Practitioner’s Guide­line for Chil­dren Sus­pected of Hav­ing a Mid­dle Ear Infec­tion
•Overview of Acute Oti­tis Media Treat­ment Options
•Obser­va­tion Option Toolkit for Acute Oti­tis Media
•Par­ent or Care­giver Infor­ma­tion Sheet

The Overview of Acute Oti­tis Media Treat­ment Options, Obser­va­tion Option Toolkit for Acute Oti­tis Media, and Par­ent of Care­giver Infor­ma­tion Sheet are avail­able only as a portable doc­u­ment for­mat (PDF) file. Click here for help using PDF files. Requests for the doc­u­ment in an alter­nate for­mat should be made by send­ing an e-mail note to: abxuse@health.state.ny.us.

Viral Pre­scrip­tion (In Eng­lish and Span­ish)
•Intro­duc­tion for Con­sumers
•Intro­duc­tion for Providers