THE ARRIVAL OF West Nile virus in the United States and the fact that there is currently no treatment to cure the disease have presented a huge challenge for health care experts throughout the country. Since the initial outbreak of the disease in 1999 and since its spread throughout the nation, researchers have been hard at work trying to find out how West Nile virus got here and how to prevent or control future outbreaks.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases are overseeing a massive effort by a range of scientists to understand the spread of West Nile virus and to develop new methods of treating and preventing the disease. A recent Centers for Disease Control report lists several high priority research projects for the present and future.

One area of investigation involves studies on how...