The extent of the outbreak, spreading through Germany, seemed unclear.
Officials said it was not possible to predict the extent of the outbreak yet.
The toll was rising as experts were getting a better idea of the extent of the outbreak, Mr. Hartl said.
On the basis of several cases of cryptosporidiosis detected in a child day-care center, we stablished the extent of the outbreak and investigated causes of parasite transmission.
"They definitely need to tell the public, but also people in the city, as to the extent of the outbreak, how the disease is being controlled and the impact on public health," he said.
The money, a $20 million increase over President Clinton's budget request, will be distributed to states based on the extent of the outbreak among people and wildlife, and the need for control.
She added that a joint working group involving specialists from the Meteorological Office, the Health Protection Agency and Health Protection Scotland were plotting the size and extent of the plume, using weather data and other information from the sites involved, to estimate the extent of the outbreak.
In an interview, one of the authors, Dr. Charles A. Nichter of Columbia and Bronx-Lebanon Hospithat salerting alerting doctors to the difficulties of diagnosing West Nile would not only help them treat patients but would also let health officials get a better handle on the extent of the outbreak.
The speed and extent of the outbreak was "unprecedented", the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week.
Patients were hiding or being hidden by family members, for instance, and there was a collective denial about the extent of the outbreak in the affected countries.
