In February Georgia only had one known case of the Zika virus, someone who'd traveled to Colombia and contracted the disease while there.
Now Georgia has at least 72 known cases of travel-related Zika, and metro Atlanta has the highest number of travel-related Zika cases in the state. The virus is also being spread now by local mosquitoes in pockets of neighboring Florida. All this has put some residents of Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood on edge, so the Buckhead Coalition is starting a limited mosquito abatement program through this month.
The group will pay Buckhead home and business owners for mosquito larvacide pellets to put in any pools of stagnant water near their residences or buildings. Since mosquitoes can breed in bodies of water as tiny as a bottle cap, there are likely thousands of potential breeding grounds in the 28-square-mile community.
“There seems to be so much nervousness about it,” said Sam Massell, Coalition founder and former Atlanta Mayor. “We’ve heard people talk about it at lunch, and with what’s going on in Florida and the Congress, not a day goes by that you don’t hear something about it.”
Congress has yet to vote on the Obama administration’s request for $1.9 billion to fight Zika. Most people who get the disease show no symptoms, making it particularly dangerous for pregnant women. The infection causes devastating birth defects in developing fetuses, and can also result in miscarriages and still births. Because the disease makes fetal brain cells calcify, researchers are now studying its affect on adult brain cells. Early research with adult mice indicates Zika kills brain cells associated with memory.
The virus is spread by two types of mosquitoes found in Georgia, the Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. The aegypti has already been found in municipal mosquito traps in the Columbus area. No local mosquitoes have spread the virus in Georgia so far, but state public health officials worry the state could see cases before mosquito season ends in late fall.
The Coalition is asking residents to purchase the mosquito “dunk” pellets at the Buckhead Home Depot and to mail or bring their receipts to the Coalition offices at 3340 Peachtree Road, Suite 560, Atlanta, 30326 for reimbursement. The Coalition, however, will only reimburse each home or business for one packet of pellets. Each pellet kills mosquito larvae for 30 days.
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