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8.30.2001 00:45
West Nile found in mosquito trap
By THOMAS J. MORGAN
Journal Staff Writer
Initial results from testing by a laboratory in Massachusetts confirm the presence of West Nile virus in mosquitoes trapped in five Rhode Island towns on Aug. 6, the state Department of Environmental Management said yesterday.
The towns are Little Compton, where the virus was reported at the end of last month, Tiverton, Middletown, Jamestown and Smithfield.
On Aug. 17, the DEM reported a finding of "suspect positive" in the five towns, prompting the agency to seek independent verification. The DEM said that the state Department of Health delivered samples of the mosquitoes to professional counterparts in the Bay State. "Initial results from the Massachusetts lab confirm positive results," the DEM said yesterday in a statement.
DEM spokeswoman Stephanie Powell said people should take normal precautions, but there is no immediate cause for alarm.
"We just want to make sure that people know it's around," Powell said yesterday, referring the West Nile virus. "Whether we find it or don't find it, it's here."
Powell said the Massachusetts laboratory has not produced a final report on its testing, and she did not know when that report might be announced.
The DEM said it would continue "routine testing" of birds and mosquitoes.
The five towns where the virus appeared join Foster and Pawtucket on a list of communities in Rhode Island where the fingerprints of the exotic disease have turned up. It is spread to humans by mosquitoes that bite infected birds and then bite humans.
The virus invaded the United States in 1999 and spread quickly across much of the country. It is rarely fatal, and is considered a serious risk only to the elderly and people whose resistance is weakened by other diseases.
Malcolm Grant, associate director of the DEM's Bureau of Natural Resources, said on Aug. 17 that the DEM decided to retest the samples from insects collected in traps on Aug. 6 for two reasons: the number of mosquitoes collected was small and experience has shown that retesting in other state areas failed to confirm initial positive findings.
"We're trying to develop a comfort level with our results," Grant said.
He said a previous round of testing in the same towns showed no trace of the disease. "Then, suddenly, we get positive [samples] on the same trap night in locations all over the state," he said. "It just struck us as a prudent measure to ask ourselves whether these were in fact accurate results."
Grant said none of the traps contained more than three insects, and some held only one, making it difficult for scientists to gauge just how big a pool of the disease is lurking in the wild bird population.
He said the results of the Aug. 6 trapping and testing do not justify ground spraying to kill mosquitoes, a procedure he said is only temporarily effective anyway.
Grant said it is "a no-brainer" to advise people to use insect repellent and avoid exposure to mosquitoes.
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