West Nile virus affected nearly 2,000 people in Texas in 2012, killing 89. Neither state and local public health institutions nor the medical community were well prepared for the unprecedented outbreak. The virus is carried by mosquitoes and can cause paralysis and other neurological damage. Other diseases carried by insect vectors, like dengue fever, are poised to resurge or emerge in Texas. Suspected effects of climate change, like warmer winters, may contribute to the prevalence of such diseases and frequency of outbreaks. Adequate surveillance of human cases of these diseases is crucial to the public health response, but is hampered by a low level of diagnosis and reporting throughout the state and spotty vector surveillance by local entities.

In the fall of 1999 the mosquito-borne West Nile virus (WNV) killed 7 people in the NY City area and made dozens more very sick. It was initially misidentified as a different, related mosquito-borne virus often found in the U.S. The outbreak serves as a source of lessons about how public health (PH) officials can be better prepared in responding to potential crises involving uncertain causes, and how they can detect and respond to an act of biological terrorism. This report reviews the WNV outbreak and the response to it, focusing on establishing a chronological account of the events that occurred; and identifying lessons learned for PH and bioterrorism preparedness.

Making Sense of the Organization elaborates on the influential idea that organizations are interpretation systems that scan, interpret, and learn. These selected essays represent a new approach to the way managers learn and act in response to their environment and the way organizational change evolves. Readers of this volume will find a wealth of examples and insights which go well beyond thinking and cognition to explain action. The author's ideas are at the forefront of our thinking on leadership, teams, and the management of change. “This book engages the puzzle of impermanence in organizing. Through rich examples, evocative language, artful literature citing, and imaginative connecting, Weick re-introduces core ideas and themes around attending, interpreting, acting and learning to unlock new insights about impermanent organizing. The wisdom in this book is timeless and timely. It prods scholars and managers of organizations to complicate their views of organizing in ways that enrich thought and action.” - Jane E. Dutton, Robert L. Kahn Distinguished University Professor, University of Michigan