The Fulton County Health Department will start an “aggressive and coordinated” mosquito control campaign on May 16 to combat the kinds of mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus.
As reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in March, the county is stepping up the mosquito-control program it already has in place. But this spring and summer, in addition to the on-going fight against mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus, the county will be looking for and trying to control the breeding of mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus. Fulton determines what kinds of mosquitoes are prevalent in a particular area by catching them in traps. That process usually begins each July but will start this year on June 1, said Ellis Jones, Fulton County Environmental Health Deputy Director.
“We’re looking for more than one type of mosquito now,” said Sherrie Hauser-Simmons, spokesperson for the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness.
The Zika mosquitoes are the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, both of which bite throughout the day not just at dawn and dusk. The aegypti, in particular, has been a pernicious carrier of Zika. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently confirmed that Zika is the cause of microcephaly, a birth defect that causes babies to be born with unusually small heads, underdeveloped brains, sight and hearing problems. The evidence is also growing that Zika can cause Guillane-Barre syndrome, a debilitating and sometimes deadly nerve disorder that affects children and adults. Most people who get Zika show no symptoms, which is another worrisome reality of the disease. It is also sexually transmitted.
And in another ominous turn, the disease has been blamed for the death of an elderly man in Puerto Rico last month who developed a bleeding disorder after he contracted the virus.
To date, no cases of local Zika transmission — from mosquito to human — have occurred in the continental U.S. The only recorded cases have been travel related, where a person was bitten by a mosquito while traveling in an area where the virus is rampant. Those regions remain in Latin America and the Caribbean, although federal health officials believe there will likely be isolated outbreaks of Zika in the contiguous states. The states most likely to see outbreaks first are Texas, Florida and New York, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. The Southeast, however, particularly the coastal areas of Georgia and South Carolina are also at risk, since the mosquitoes that can carry the virus flourish there.
According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, there have been 13 travel-related cases of Zika so far in the state.
Over the years, Fulton County has relied primarily on larvicides, dropping them from mid-May through October into at least 12,000 catch basins and storm drains around the county, said Jones, back in March.
The larvicides have also been used to control the spread of West Nile virus. The county works with a contractor that uses teams with back-pack sprayers to kill adult mosquitoes in problem areas. It also has a contingency plan to use truck sprayers as well, Ellis said.
Spraying for mosquitoes from a truck, however, has limited efficacy. The insecticides travel only 300 feet and are blocked by homes and buildings so they don’t travel into back yards or through dense vegetation where mosquitoes are likely to breed.
The state can push abatement campaigns but it’s up to the counties to coordinate mosquito control programs. Their efforts vary greatly.
Chatham, Glynn, and Liberty counties along Georgia’s coast and Fulton County use a combination of spraying and larvicide pellets to control mosquitoes. DeKalb County puts pellets with the active insecticide s-methoprene, in sewer catch basins, which are prolific breeding grounds, said Susan Loeffler, director of Emergency Management Services for DeKalb County. The pellets don’t kill the mosquitoes, but prevent them from reaching full adulthood.
The best line of defense against Zika this summer might simply be individual action; bug repellent, long sleeves, window screens and air conditioning, officials said. Standing water should be removed immediately after a rain or running a sprinkler system.
Already, the state is working with counties to promote a “Tip ‘n Toss” campaign to get people to remove any standing water on their property. Abandoned tires, bird baths, gutters, pet water bowls, truck beds, children’s toys, lawn furniture, wheel barrels, saucers underneath potted plants can be breeding grounds for the aegypti mosquito, which prefers to lay their eggs in shaded or dark-colored places. They can become adults in less than a week and they can breed in something as small as a bottle cap.
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