More cases of Malaria, West Nile found in South Florida

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Health officials have confirmed a third case of West Nile virus this year in Broward County and a fourth case of malaria in Palm Beach County.

A 51-year-old woman was confirmed Friday to be infected with West Nile. She was hospitalized with serious symptoms, including partial paralysis, but was recovering, Broward health officials said.

The woman, whose name and residence were not released, contracted the mosquito-borne disease in the first week of August, officials said. The health department said lab results on the Broward woman showed that the virus caused encephalitis, a swelling of the brain and related nerve tissues.

In Palm Beach County, a 45-year-old homeless man living in a wooded area west of Lake Worth was diagnosed with malaria. The county's other three cases -- men living in the same general area -- were recovering at home. They were infected starting last month.

I live next to a swamp, by choice. Currently, it IS a swamp/bog combo. Skeeters there are far less than the number of skeeters back in the nice suburban neighborhood in which I previously lived. At least in the swamp, the mosquitofish and other critters (like the elephant mosquito- which eats bloodsucking types) keep the larvae in check very nicely. The water's not as stagnant as it looks in most swamps and that keeps the skeeters down. But in the neighborhoods, the mosquito truck isn't all that effective - it probably kills more predatory insects than it does mosquitos- assuming the concentration's high enough to even do that. There is a dearth of predatory insects in this environment, but unfortunately, numerous water supplies just right for the worst forms of mosquitos.

When half the people in the neighborhood won't do simple things like empty out flower pots and other junk, or when renters won't take care of their freakin' pools, a nice neighborhood is worse than any swamp. Draining swamps won't fix all those little bug breeding holes people create just by being sloppy.

Last year I had to stock one renter's unmaintained, uncovered pool with fish because his idiot landlord wouldn't take care of the problem. (It worked.) I have never encountered more mosquitos in my life than in that fool's pool, not even with all this rain and a swamp next door.

The "intelligent" folks around here turned the periphery of the old swamp and turned it into an arboretum. They televised a bit on it and the newsperson was swatting mosquitos like no tomorrow. The first dead crow of the season was found nearby.

These idiots STILL don't realize that our pioneers drained the swamps for a reason.

The latest "intelligent" move is subdivision "retention ponds" in lieu of underground piping. Feces all over the place from the stupid birds who think God made the pond. Several warnings by the Health Department have been issued because of high bacteria levels. (Duh!!). The big "fuuny" in all this is that one of the ponds is in an "elite" neighborhood and their walks and parking lots are entirely covered with feces. They hired a dog to scare the birds away. Sooo funny. It couldn;'t happen to a nicer group.

I say...let's bring the rattlesnakes back...That'll bring about some "common sense".

http://www1.tcpalm.com/tcp/jc_local_news/article/0,1651,TCP_1114_2193136,00.html

...Dr. Jean Malecki, director of the Palm Beach County Health Department, said that because the latest malaria case remains unexplained and falls outside the alert zone issued last month for an area west of Lake Worth — where two men were diagnosed with the disease — the entire county needs to be on guard.

"The bottom line is there are so many unknowns in this particular case, we want people to take this very seriously, to protect themselves from coming down with either West Nile or malaria. West Nile is all over this county, so people have got to avoid mosquito bites."

Malecki said she intends to talk with the county's emergency operations office about using its emergency calling system to contact all the homes in the county with a recorded message explaining the alert. About 38,000 homes in the original malaria alert zone have been called.

The message, in English and Spanish, says, in part:

"People in your area have contracted malaria. This disease is carried by mosquitoes and makes you very ill. The symptoms include headache, dizziness, high fever, teeth-chattering chills and vomiting. The Health Department is alerting you and your neighbors to take every precaution to avoid mosquito bites."

The message recommends seeking medical care for anyone developing such symptoms and provides a phone number at the Health Department for more information: (561) 840-4500.

Mosquito-control workers have stepped up spraying in west Lake Worth, where all three malaria cases were found, and soon will fan out to other areas of the county, said Tim O'Connor, Health Department spokesman.

Malaria is caused by parasites that are passed from person to person by mosquitoes. The parasites incubate in the mosquito for about a week before the bug becomes infectious. After a human is infected, the parasites collect in the liver for eight days to several months, then flood the bloodstream and infect red blood cells causing symptoms such as vomiting, high fever and chills.

Malecki said her department has not been able to find the person with an active case of malaria who was the "index" case, the person the mosquitoes bit to spread the illness to the other three who have come down with it.

"We may never find that person," she said. "My intention is to stop any spread and to treat anybody who comes down with it early."

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 1,500 cases of malaria are reported every year in the United States, with 99.9 percent of the people becoming infected overseas. Only two or three people a year are infected by mosquitoes that bite a person who brought the disease into the United States.

The long incubation period of the parasite and the short life of a mosquito make it difficult for malaria to spread into the local population, said Louise Causer, a malaria expert at the CDC.

"There's no reason to panic at all," Malecki said. "What's important is to become educated and to protect yourself and your loved ones against mosquito bites."

Palm Beach County still has not had a human case of West Nile but has found the virus in sentinel chickens and wild birds, Malecki said. Unlike malaria, there is no treatment for West Nile.

"Right now I'd be extremely concerned about West Nile because of that," she said. "There's no antibiotic. There's no silver bullet, and we have the virus all over this county. It's just a matter of time before somebody comes down with it, and there is no treatment."

Broward and Miami-Dade counties have had residents come down with the serious brain inflammations associated with West Nile infection in the past two weeks, the most recent a Miami-Dade case announced Monday.

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