While most people would do anything possible to avoid a relatively unknown and dangerous disease, one West Virginia Wesleyan alumnus constantly pursues hands-on research about bird flu, West Nile virus, Lyme disease, and other arboviruses causing encephalitis. A few short weeks ago, Dr. David Henzler, West Virginia’s new State Public Health Veterinarian, spent a month in Africa, six days after the first official diagnosis of the Eurasian strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza subtype H5N1-- the bird flu.

Dr. Henzler was part of a 100-person international team of health specialists that arrived in Nigeria in February. The group represented the United Nations, World Health Organization, the Center of Disease Control, OIC International FarmServe Africa UNICEF, USAID, and others.  His core team consisted of nearly 20 persons with the charge of developing and implementing technical control protocols and educational materials to manage the bird flu. 

“The concentration of my work was with the veterinary aspect, providing guidance for the containment, management, and control of the bird flu,” says Dr. Henzler.  “Ideally we would have liked to have prevented this highly contagious disease from spreading initially from the original four infected states in the mid and northern portions of Nigeria to the southern part of the country and remaining 33 states.  Since I had the unique background experience in control of other influenza viruses in the United States-primarily in Pennsylvania for more than ten years, this skill set was valuable to our team.”

Dr. Henzler developed four training modules detailing disease recognition, biosecurity, depopulation (stamping out), sanitation, and other control measures which were used to train veterinarians, technicians, poultry farmers, and community stakeholders.  These modules are anticipated to be used throughout Africa. 

However, the Pittsburgh native believes the obstacles in Africa may be too great to overcome in preventing the spread of the disease.  “Nigeria has over 130 million people who live in extreme poverty with an estimated 45 percent unemployment,” notes Dr. Henzler.  “The health care facilities are poor and are at best something comparable to our hospitals in the 1950’s.  Many infectious diseases are present among the people including some remaining cases of polio, hepatitis, and HIV.  Nigeria is one of four countries remaining in the world where polio is endemic. People also still die of malaria there.” 

“While we outlined the steps necessary to control the spread of the bird flu in the first hours I arrived in Nigeria, it was essentially impossible for the Nigerian government to respond with resources in the time needed,” adds Dr. Henzler.  “Diagnostic capability and infrastructure required to quickly implement containment strategies were just not present.”

This strain of bird flu has been circulating since December 2003 across Southeast Asia, through portions of the former Soviet Union, to parts of Europe, India, and now Africa.  The virus has spread to at least six additional African countries since Dr. Henzler’s visit to Nigeria.  “The reason African is deemed so important by the United States and the United Nations is the poor medical health facilities in the country and the large number of people already living in depressed conditions,” adds Dr. Henzler.  “The concern is this virus might soon develop into a strain that could pass from human-to-human or “sustained human transmission.”  At this time, we do not know if this might happen.”

Dr. Henzler greatly enjoyed working with the people of Nigeria.  However, while he was there, Muslim attacks on Christians resulted in numerous deaths and the kidnapping of international workers on oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta.  During his stay, militants from the same area also destroyed the conveyances for petroleum products.

Today, Dr. Henzler is back in West Virginia primarily dealing with diseases that can be spread from animals to humans, zoonotic diseases—West Nile virus, La-Crosse virus, Lyme disease, and rabies for example. 

“West Virginia has the highest number of cases in the country of La-Crosse virus,” says Dr. Henzler.  “It is spread by mosquitoes and it causes encephalitis.”  According to Henzler there are 75-100 cases reported annually in the United States, but in West Virginia there have been 68 cases from January 2003 to December 2005.

Junk tires and other containers provide excellent breeding pools for mosquitoes, which contributes to mosquito-borne diseases such as the La-Crosse encephalitis.  “We are working hard to educate people about ways they can avoid these diseases,” concludes Dr. Henzler.

After graduating from West Virginia Wesleyan, Dr. Henzler earned his degree in veterinary medicine at North Carolina State University.  He also has an equivalency master’s degree from work in epidemiology through the United States Department of Agriculture and John Hopkins University.  A year ago, he completed work on his Ph.D. in veterinary science at the United Graduate School of Yamaguchi University, Japan.  Prior to becoming the West Virginia State Public Health Veterinarian, Dr. Henzler worked in the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.