Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

West Nile virus (WNV) is a potentially serious illness. Experts believe WNV is established as a seasonal epidemic in North America that flares up in the summer and continues into the fall. Most often, WNV is spread by the bite of an infected mosquito. Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on infected birds. Infected mosquitoes can then spread WNV to humans and other animals when they bite.

Approximately 80 percent of people (about 4 out of 5) who are infected with WNV will not show any symptoms at all. Up to 20 percent of the people who become infected have symptoms such as fever, headache, and body aches, nausea, vomiting, and sometimes swollen lymph glands or a skin rash on the chest, stomach and back. Symptoms can last for as short as a few days, though even healthy people have become sick for several weeks. And about one in 150 people infected with WNV will develop severe illness. People typically develop symptoms between 3 and 14 days after they are bitten by the infected mosquito.

The severe symptoms can include high fever, headache, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, vision loss, numbness and paralysis.

The easiest and best way to avoid WNV is to prevent mosquito bites:

• When you are outdoors, use insect repellent containing an EPA-registered active ingredient. Follow the directions on the package.

• Many mosquitoes are most active at dusk and dawn. Be sure to use insect repellent and wear long sleeves and pants at these times or consider staying indoors during these hours.

• Make sure you have good screens on your windows and doors to keep mosquitoes out.

• Get rid of mosquito breeding sites by emptying standing water from flower pots, buckets and barrels. Change the water in pet dishes and replace the water in bird baths weekly. Drill holes in tire swings so water drains out. Keep children's wading pools empty and on their sides when they aren't being used.

The following El Paso City-County Health Department report was issued on August 23, 2006:

Storm 2006
Vector Control/Facilities

Vector control has five environmental health inspectors who conduct inspections, treat water, and monitor mosquito breeding during the day. The environmental health inspectors also fog at night and set up light traps to collect adult mosquitoes. The mosquitoes are sent to the Texas Department of State Health Services for analysis of potential diseases carried by mosquitoes, which can be transmitted to humans. The map requested identifies area’s covered by the environmental health inspector by zip code. Currently the work schedule is Monday through Saturday. The environmental health inspectors evaluate standing water and decide what control measure to utilize. The control measure can be to use gambusia fish or to use larvacide, which will assist in the reduction of mosquito larva.

The Texas Department of State Health Services oversees the vector control program by conducting yearly audit of the program. The vector control program has never failed a state audit. All chemicals used are all Environmental Protection Agency approved and the Texas Department of State Health Services closely monitors our use of these chemicals. Currently due to the heavy rain and flooding, the vector control program is concentrating mosquito control activities in areas with high levels of ponding, which we consider high risk, such as the upper valley and lower valley.

Jorge C. Magaña, M.D., F.A.A.P.
Director

Get the Vector Control Storm 2006 Final Report here.