Digital Extra

6.10.2000
State creates buzz about West Nile virus
Although the first batch of mosquitoes tested show no signs of the virus, a state advertising campaign is telling the public to exercise caution.

Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE -- "Protect Yourself."

The dramatic advice will hit Rhode Islanders this weekend in 12-foot banners mounted on 20 Rhode Island Public Transit Authority buses and 15 vans.

Lest anyone think this is more advice on dating, the banners also will include a large image of a mosquito and the additional advice: "Prevent Bites, Prevent Breeding Grounds."

The new public-service announcements are the latest round in the campaign launched by the state Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Management to lessen the risk that Rhode Islanders will be infected with West Nile virus by mosquito bites this summer.

Laboratory analysis completed yesterday on the first batch of mosquitoes collected by DEM staff showed no sign of the virus in the thousands of mosquitoes sampled.

State mosquito abatement personnel didn't expect to find the virus this early in the season, but they will keep collecting mosquitoes and analyzing them until the first frost in the fall.

The new anti-mosquito efforts come in part from the extra $250,000 the state budgeted this year to keep mosquito populations low and try to avert an outbreak of this new disease. West Nile virus, an encephalitis-like disease common in Africa and Europe, first appeared in the United States last fall in the New York area.

No one knows how the virus got to New York, or where it will flare up again. But by the time frosts brought an end to the fall mosquito season, seven elderly people in the city had died as a result of West Nile virus, along with numerous birds and horses.

The virus was also found in mosquitoes and dead birds in Connecticut, New Jersey and Long Island.

The concern this year is that birds migrating from the south will spread the disease to local mosquito populations as they emerge, and that eventually as West Nile virus is transmitted back and forth between birds and mosquitoes people could be at risk.

Last week, the DEM gave Rhode Island communities the go-ahead to distribute larvicide in some 86,000 catch basins and other wet locations to help kill many mosquitoes before they reach adulthood.

It also distributed traps so mosquitoes could be collected around the state and monitored.

Because the disease poses a particular threat to the elderly, the Health Department sent forms to 1,000 doctors' offices and senior centers, offering copies of posters, stickers, buttons and information cards in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

"We've gotten a wonderful response," said Helen Drew of the Health Department. "It's been working better than I hoped and we've been sending out lots of orders."

The fact sheets follow two themes: People should protect themselves with screens, long sleeves and long pants, and by limiting children's play at sundown, when mosquitoes are most active. People also should clear their yards of buckets and old tires and anything else that holds stagnant water.

For more information, call the DEM at 1-800-482-7878 or visit the DEM's Web site at www.doh.state.ri.us.

Don't expect particularly timely information at the DEM number, however. It was last updated on May 19.