The Corona Lions Club of Queens recently presented Village of Roslyn resident Dr. Rick Conetta and Roslyn High School graduate Dr. Deborah Asnis with the First Annual Justice William G. Giaccio Outstanding Achievement Award for reporting the first known cases of West Nile Encephalitis in the New York City area in 1999. For the past two summers, the West Nile virus has forced local governments to do excessive spraying in neighborhoods throughout New York City and Nassau and Suffolk counties. In 1999, the year the virus was first discovered, there were significantly more cases of people being bitten in Queens County than in the suburbs.

For Dr. Conetta, the discovery of the virus began during his service as Director of Critical Care Medicine at Flushing Medical Hospital. There, he noticed an "unusual, infectious problem" circulating throughout Queens County. The first four encephalitis cases came to Dr. Conetta for treatment. He reported on the cases to his colleagues at Flushing Medical, who then passed on the information to the New York City Department of Health. Further research found the disease to, in fact, be a "West Nile" form of encephalitis that can be fatal to the victim.

According to Dr. Conetta, Department of Health officials initially were not interested in the hospital's daily reports on the virus. But once birds began dying at the Bronx Zoo, city officials started to notice. And so, the spraying began.

Mosquitoes carry the disease. They pass it on by biting humans or their fellow mammals, usually birds. The elderly are especially vulnerable to mosquito bites. So far, there is no specific treatment for the infections. Doctors support encephalities victims by giving them plenty of fluids and solid foods, while the body fights off the infection. Young people who are in good health can generally overcome any mosquito bites. The elderly, especially those suffering from other, more chronic problems, have a much more difficult time recovering from the infection.

Last summer, city and county officials began spraying without waiting first to see if the virus had returned. As a result, the number of cases reported, including those to the crow population, fell significantly.