Posted on 08/03/2002 2:23:14 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Edited on 04/22/2004 12:34:18 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
SLIDELL, La.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Seriously, it isn't very good news, is it? The "eco-friendly" junk our county sprays daily to "control" bugs is a joke- they fly right through the clouds and seem to get angrier.
It doesn't even slow the bugs down.
I have been trying to educate people about the pig-headed stupidity of outlawing DDT ( which is responsible for 1-2 million more, preventable human deaths per year from disease ) and I wonder if maybe this will make people see the light...
At the top of my Saturday shopping list. (I will get some for my doggies too!) I've found dead birds in my yard down here in the woods.
Pick up a bat house or two while you're at it. Each house holds about 100 bats. Each bat will consume several pounds of mosquitoes this season.
Something to consider, if your county insists on using aromatherapy on the mosquitoes instead of effective pesticides.
Sounds like the same thing I heard about the Purple Martins. I built a 48 room Purple Martin condo. In three years, not one has chosen to stay in the condo. (..and yes I built it to the Birder's spec's.)
That's not good. You can take the carcasses to your local county extension agent for testing.
We've already had numerous positive testing all over the county. WNV is present all over the county. So....
Is it rent controlled?
Just remember that this WNV started in NY. (...and I know where you work in Manhattan, hee, hee)
I have two brothers that are into gardening. One is an organic gardener, the other is not.
So one year the not-organic brother is having big trouble with aphids on his rose bushes. Mr. Organic convinces him to try ladybugs instead of chemical warfare, gives him an 800 number to order the bugs shipped vis Fedex. They arrive in two little boxes, 500 ladybugs to a box.
My brother carries the boxes out to the rose bushes, sets them on the ground and opens them up, and watches the ladybugs go exactly where they were supposed to go. Wow, thinks he. My brother was right. This was the best way to handle those aphids. This is great. I love ladybugs! Go, ladybugs, go!
Later that afternoon a thunderstorm swept through the area and blew every last ladybug into the next county. My brother couldn't find even ONE in his garden the next day. So he broke out the diazenon for the aphids after all.
No. There were scouts early in the spring that looked interested but the nesting Eastern Bluebirds nearby chased them off. (For real, I would never have expected that)
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
Federal and state health officials said yesterday that 58 Louisianians had become ill from the West Nile virus in recent days and that four had died. The outbreak of the virus is the largest since it was first detected in the United States, in New York City in 1999.
In addition to the cases in Louisiana, 13 have been reported in the adjacent states of Texas and Mississippi.
The Louisiana outbreak prompted Gov. Mike Foster to declare an emergency yesterday, partly in an effort to obtain millions of dollars in federal aid for local governments that are rapidly using up their mosquito spraying budgets.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has sent a team of 10 scientists to investigate how widely the virus has spread in Louisiana and elsewhere in the gulf region, and to trap insects and the animals they may have infected. One aim is to determine whether species of mosquitoes not previously identified as transmitters of the virus are in fact spreading it.
Such identification would be crucial to controlling the outbreak.
Most people who become ill with West Nile virus suffer only mild flulike symptoms. But a small percentage — mostly older people and those whose immune systems have become impaired by cancer therapy, by H.I.V. or for other reasons — can suffer more serious illness, including meningitis or encephalitis. These inflammations of the brain and its covering can bring serious, long-lasting health problems or even death.
Health officials said they could not explain precisely why the West Nile virus had struck so fiercely in Louisiana and neighboring states. They noted, however, that encephalitis caused by other viruses had long been a significant health problem in the gulf region. The introduction of West Nile into the area only adds to the burden on the health system there.
The virus spread widely elsewhere last year, moving from the Northeast as far south as the Florida Keys and 750 miles to the west of them. In all, it covered an area of about half a million square miles. Sixty-six cases of illness were reported then, from 10 states.
Though the 71 cases reported so far this year — all from Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas — are little more than the 2001 total, health officials said they were deeply concerned, for two reasons: first, the onset of illness this year occurred relatively early in the summer; second, the illness seems to be afflicting a younger population than the people sickened in the three previous years since the virus's detection.
From 1999 through 2001, when a total of 149 cases were reported in the United States, most were identified from mid-August through September; the earliest onset of illness in those years occurred on July 14.
This year, by contrast, cases were first identified in middle to late June, and have been occurring with increasing frequency ever since.
As for the age groups of the people made ill, the average age of patients in the first two years that West Nile virus caused infections in the United States was about 66, and last year it was 70, said Dr. Stephen M. Ostroff, a senior official of the disease control centers.
This year, on the other hand, the average age in the three affected states has been in the upper 50's. Health officials in Louisiana said that of the 55 patients there whose ages were known, 24 were 60 or older. But 12 were 45 to 59, and 19 were younger still.
There is no way to know, however, whether the age disparity from the previous years' experience will continue. And it is too early to know whether the disparity recorded so far signals any change in the virus.
Of the four people killed in the current outbreak, two were from Baton Rouge, one from Folsom, near the Mississippi line, and one from the town of Iowa, not far from Texas.
The Gulf Coast's natural features will make efforts to control the virus there more difficult than they were in New York and elsewhere.
"Mosquitoes are breeding prolifically at this time" in the gulf region, Dr. Ostroff said in an interview.
"We're just going into the season for encephalitis," he added. "More cases will occur."
Dr. Ostroff said that "even with aggressive measures, the outbreak is not going to come to a screeching halt as it did in New York," and that "control will require a continuing effort for months."
Dr. Ostroff was a leader in the epidemiological investigation of the outbreak in New York, which infected 62 people and killed seven. He said that while he would not advise people to refrain from visiting the Gulf Coast, it was important to keep in mind that groups like the elderly and those with impaired immune systems were at greater risk than others for developing severe illness from West Nile virus.
There is no specific treatment for West Nile other than supportive therapy like intravenous fluids, assistance in breathing with a mechanical ventilator and nursing care to prevent secondary infections like pneumonia.
Many of those infected during the current outbreak have been hospitalized, and some have required treatment in intensive care units, Dr. Ostroff said. A "significant" number of those hospitalized have recovered and gone home, he said. Federal and Louisiana health officials have advised people in the region to try to avoid mosquito bites by reducing the amount of time they spend outdoors, particularly in early morning and early evening, when the mosquitoes that carry the virus are most likely to bite.
The officials also recommended wearing long pants and loose long-sleeved shirts and applying mosquito repellent to exposed skin. As a further step, they urged residents to help eliminate mosquito breeding sites by draining stagnant water and spraying.
In just three years, West Nile virus has infected 31 species of mosquitoes and 115 species of birds in the United States.
Last year, 27 states and the District of Columbia reported finding West Nile virus in humans or insects and animals. This year, seven states have been added to the list. In the North, the virus has spread as far west as the eastern Dakotas.
Eastern Bluebird (They're in the same family as the Robin)
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