Mosquito spraying imminent

Mosquito spraying in Eunice is likely to begin in the next few weeks, and the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has an aggressive plan in place should the Zika virus be found in the state’s mosquito population.
Dr. Frank Welch of DHH said, “A lot has changed since the outbreak, as with any emerging infectious disease. In the last five months, nationally there have been 503 confirmed cases. Forty-eight of those were in pregnant women and 10 of them were sexually transmitted. There are also numerous cases in the territories, especially Puerto Rico. In Louisiana, there have been four confirmed cases of Zika.”
He continued, “There is a chance the number of cases will go up with mosquito season. We are really thinking that with aggressive education, we will try best not to let local transmission set up in neighborhoods. If local transmission does set up, we have a plan to get out there and control with aggressive spraying.”
Fortunately for the Eunice area, Welch said that the species of mosquito that can transmit the virus, the aedes aegypti, is more likely to be found in swampy areas with high concentrations of people, especially parishes in southeast Louisiana like Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany.
“The mosquito that transmits Zika is not yet active in Louisiana, but we expect it to be later this summer,” Welch said. “They can be found on the southern end of the state but these mosquitoes are not found much in the country. They feed exclusively on humans, and they are found around homes and within 50 yards of humans.”
Welch said that no mosquitoes in the continental U.S. have tested positive for the virus.
“In preparing for the upcoming mosquito season, we are lucky there is something we can do — make sure there is no standing water in our yards,” Welch said.
While the height of mosquito season is still ahead, the department has been focused on outreach to hospitals, health centers and doctors offices and letting healthcare staff know what to look for in patients who have traveled abroad and are seeking medical attention for an illness. Those symptoms include red eyes, mild fever and cough.
“We know the disease is really, really mild,” Welch said. “Four out of five people who have it don’t even know they have it. Offshore workers, cruise ships and flights are returning every day. Our focus is on travelers. Be really cautious when traveling to Puerto Rico and Brazil. If you are pregnant, consider not traveling to these areas where there is active Ziki transmission.”
He continued, “This is really just the tip of the iceberg with the disease. We are really still learning. It can’t be transmittted through breast milk. Newborns like us (adults), can get over it.”
Welch said the worst time to catch the disease is during the critical months of pregnancy when the brain is developing. Women who contract the disease during pregnancy may pass the virus to the child, and the disease can cause microcephaly in the baby. Microcephaly is a birth defect where a child’s head is smaller than normal.
Zika came to international attention when an outbreak began in Brazil, and children there were being born with the birth defect.
“Brazil is doing aggressive mosquito control,” Welch said. “Now the challenge is those women who are two months pregnant — they wont know if their child is affected until seven months later, when the child is born.”
“We believe the number of Zika cases there is going down, but winter is beginning in Brazil, so it’s not certain if it’s the onset of winter or the mosquito control that is causing the decrease in cases.”
Eunice Mayor Scott Fontenot said George Schneider, Eunice recreation director, monitors the mosquito population at the Eunice City Recreation Complex.
“If he starts getting complaints about mosquitos there, that’s when we usually start spraying,” Fontenot said. “The mosquitoes haven’t been bad yet. I’m surprised they aren’t worse with the mild winter and all the rain we have had lately. Brian Mallet, Eunice Wastewater superintendent, oversees spraying. He was concerned that the south winds earlier this week would blow them out of marsh and into the area.”
Fontenot urged residents to spray themselves with mosquito repellant before going outside and eliminate any standing water outside of their homes.
Fontenot said he as been keeping up with the news on the Zika virus.
“Nationally, it’s not a huge problem, but it is a huge concern to pregnant women,” Fontenot said.
Bill Fontenot, St. Landry Parish president, said spraying has also not began in other parts of the parish.
“We have not had any complaints yet about mosquitoes, but we are on alert,” Fontenot said. “I monitors the conditions with mayors and leaders in parish and keep in contact with DHH in Lafayette.”
He continued, “I heard the president has asked Congress for funding to address the situation in Zika-prone areas. We appreciate that at the local level. I hope and pray no there are no outbreaks of Zika.”
Fontenot said that mosquito spraying is not typically done parish-wide but on a city level. He said that if the need should arise to spray the whole parish, it would be done.
“Unless something catastrophic happens, we will not spray the whole parish,” he said.