Mosquito/Malaria Control (39)
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Following, please find an article describing the West Nile prob-
lem in the US and the current interventions.
Bill Nesler
mailto:sdbc@hur.midco.net
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Malaria
Flying Blind, the last thing Louisiana needs right now is mos-
quitoes.
By Henry I. Miller
September 09, 2005, 8:43 a.m. National Review Online
The six-year old U.S. outbreak of West Nile virus is a signifi-
cant threat to public health and shows no signs of abating. Last
year, there were more than 2,500 serious cases and 100 deaths.
Still early in this year's West Nile virus season (there is a
time lag during which animals are infected, mosquitoes convey
the virus to humans, and the virus incubates until symptoms oc-
cur), the mosquito-borne virus has been found in animal hosts
(primarily birds) in 44 states, and has caused almost a thousand
serious infections and a score of deaths in humans in 36 states.
As of September 6, Louisiana ranked fourth in the nation in hu-
man West Nile virus infections; but with most of New Orleans
still under water and a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes,
there are likely to be far more cases.
However, thanks to politically correct but egregiously flawed
federal regulatory policy, the tools available to local offi-
cials for mosquito control are limited - and largely ineffec-
tive.
The website of the Centers for Disease Control suggests several
measures to avoid West Nile virus infection: "avoid mosquito
bites," by wearing clothes that expose little skin, using insect
repellent, and staying indoors during peak mosquito hours (dusk
to dawn); "mosquito-proof your home," by removing standing wa-
ter, and installing and maintaining screens; and "help your com-
munity," by reporting dead birds.
Conspicuously absent from its list of suggestions is any mention
of insecticides or widespread spraying. Anyone curious about the
role of pesticides in battling mosquitoes and West Nile is di-
rected to a maze of other Web sites.
Perhaps the Atlanta-based CDC officials don't get out much. You
don't have to be a Rocket Entomologist to know that emptying
birdbaths and the saucers under flower pots is not going to get
rid of a zillion hungry mosquitoes.
In the absence of a vaccine (the development of which has public
policy problems of its own), elimination of the vehicle that
spreads the disease - in this case, the mosquito - ought to be
the key to preventing epidemics, but fundamental shortcomings in
public policy limit the weapons that are available.
In 1972, on the basis of data on toxicity to fish and migrating
birds (but not to humans), the Environmental Protection Agency
banned virtually all uses of the pesticide DDT, an inexpensive
and effective pesticide once widely deployed to kill disease-
carrying insects. (How ironic that regulators banned DDT largely
for its toxicity to birds: Now it's unavailable to combat a mos-
quito-borne viral disease that is killing birds by the hundreds
of thousands!)