Twenty-six years ago this week, the discovery of West Nile virus in dead crows in the Rockville area prompted Montgomery County officials to alert families at 10 nearby public schools.
On October 5, 2000, officials announced that two dead crows found in and around Rockville had tested positive for West Nile virus, marking the first known cases of the mosquito-borne virus in Montgomery County. The virus had only been identified in the United States the previous year and was still relatively new to the region.
The following day, October 6, Montgomery County Public Schools announced that information about the virus was being distributed to school communities throughout the county. Ten schools located within a one-mile radius of where the infected crows were found were the first to receive the information.
Those schools were Richard Montgomery High School; Parkland, Julius West and Earle B. Wood middle schools; and Lucy V. Barnsley, Beall, Brookhaven, Fallsmead, Rock Creek Valley and Ritchie Park elementary schools.
Students at those schools were sent home with a detailed flyer and letter from county health officials explaining how West Nile virus was transmitted and ways residents could reduce their risk of exposure. At the time, officials emphasized that there was no immediate health threat and that no human cases of West Nile virus had been detected anywhere in Maryland.
The discovery was significant because West Nile virus was still making its way through the region. The virus was first detected in the United States in the New York City area in 1999. Maryland’s first positive finding that year was a dead crow discovered near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. In September 2000, infected birds were found in Howard and Baltimore counties before the virus was detected in Montgomery County in early October.
One of the two Montgomery County crows was found along Vallingby Circle in Rockville’s New Mark Commons neighborhood. The other was found along Melinda Lane in the Manor Woods area.
County officials advised residents to eliminate standing water around their homes, where mosquitoes could breed, and to limit outdoor activities around dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes were more likely to be feeding.
Within days, the response expanded. On October 12, county health officials again provided information through MCPS, reiterating that no people in Montgomery County or elsewhere in Maryland had become infected. Montgomery County also prepared to spray areas for mosquitoes following the discovery of the infected birds.
West Nile virus would eventually become established throughout the region. Maryland reported its first human cases in 2001, and by 2002 the National Capital Region recorded dozens of cases, including seven in Montgomery County.
The October 2000 notices provide an interesting look back at the earliest days of a virus that is now routinely monitored throughout Maryland, and a time when the discovery of two infected crows was enough to prompt direct alerts to families at 10 Montgomery County schools.
