West Nile virus is here to stay, say officials
Health and mosquito control officials report fielding thousands of phone calls this summer from anxious residents.
By AMANDA MILKOVITS
Journal Staff Writer
This was the summer of the West Nile virus.
Not that anyone in Massachusetts contracted it. Not that many birds died from it.
However, heightened awareness of this newcomer to the United States provoked thousands of phone calls from worried residents to local health officials and mosquito control boards.
The buzz on mosquitoes and West Nile virus is winding down as cool weather approaches. But Bristol Countys mosquito control superintendent, Alan DeCastro, said this summer was just a preview of what next summer will bring.
DeCastro said he fielded thousands of phone calls from people anxious to have their property sprayed for mosquitoes, prompting him to continue spraying well past the usual seasons end.
Next year, Im expecting as many calls as this year, if not more, said DeCastro.
Town health departments from Attleboro to Seekonk each received dozens of calls during the summer from people finding dead birds. The virus lives in birds, particularly American crows, and is transferred to humans by mosquitoes that also bite birds. The virus can lead to inflammation of the brain, yet it is rarely fatal in humans.
One worried Rehoboth man called about finding a dead bird near his home around the same time that his wife fell ill. But neither the bird nor the woman had the virus, said town nurse Lynn Perry. People have been calling her office all summer because of all the hype of West Nile and being identified so close to the area, she said.
Usually, people dont care about dead birds, said Mary Goyette, secretary of the Attleboro Health Department.
Public concerns have kept mosquito control offices spraying communities well past the usual end of summer. Spraying typically ends around Labor Day, because the spray isnt effective in
cool weather and school openings cut into the early morning spraying times. In Bristol County, spraying will cease after tomorrow.
While spraying kills mosquitoes, its a temporary solution. The pesticide only kills the mosquitoes in the immediate vicinity when the weather is right.
People panic and they think, Well, if I had my yard sprayed and theres mosquitoes, I wont get it, DeCastro said. Thats not true. The spray will only kill what is in the area that the spray reaches.
The virus is native to Asia, Africa and the Middle East, but it piggybacked its way across the water to New York last year. Sixty-two people in New York contracted the virus and seven, all elderly, died.
This summer, eight people in New York contracted the virus, and West Nile also surfaced in birds in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island. No one has died.
So far, Massachusetts has found 114 birds
killed by the virus, said Roseanne Pawelec, spokeswoman for the state Department of Health. Most were found in the Jamaica Plain-Cambridge-Boston-Newton area, she said.
There was a lot of talk that it wasnt going to get into Massachusetts this year, that it would take a long time to get a foothold, DeCastro said. Well, its here.
Yet its hard to gauge just how much the virus has infiltrated the mosquito population. Trapping the
insects doesnt always give a
clear picture of whats really happening.
Of the 20,000 mosquitoes trapped in the state, just two pools contained some with the virus, said Pawelec.
A crow infected with West Nile virus in Seekonk last month was found just 500 yards from traps that contained no virus-carrying mosquitoes, DeCastro said. Of all the mosquitoes caught in traps set up in every town in Bristol County, not one carried the virus, he said.
But the virus, DeCastro said, could be anywhere.
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