Robert Silk
Rainy season should begin in Florida sometime around Memorial
Day, and that will also mean the beginning of mosquito season.
But while mosquito control officials in various highly touristed
areas say they are making some changes in an effort to prevent Zika from
gaining hold in local mosquito populations, they also say that in many ways
they will simply continue efforts they’ve already had in place to prevent
outbreaks of dengue fever and the chikungunya virus.
“Certainty Zika has
heightened the awareness of mosquito control, but we’re doing exactly the same
thing,” said Lee Casey, who oversees mosquito control management for Miami-Dade
County.
The Miami Herald reported on Tuesday that health officials in
the state have confirmed three
news cases of the Zika virus, bringing the total to 102 since February.
The Miami area had at least 40 confirmed cases of Zika, according
to the Herald report, the most by far of any Florida county; as of late April, all
had been brought in by foreign travelers.
Since December, Casey said, Miami-Dade mosquito control has
responded to more than 1,300 potential cases. When potential cases are
reported, mosquito control sets up a zone around the home of the suspected
virus carrier, then does a walkabout, dumping items that contain standing water
(where mosquitoes can breed) and treating standing water that can’t be dumped.
The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District as well as mosquito
control in Tampa’s Hillsborough County take similar measures to secure areas
surrounding potential Zika carriers, officials in those counties said. The goal
for each of the three counties is to make sure someone who is infected doesn’t
get bitten by a local mosquito, which could then transmit the virus. Zika, like
dengue and chikungunya, is carried by the Aedes species of mosquito, most
notably the Aedes aegyptai. The Aedes aegyptai is present in Florida, but just
one of many species that can be found in the mosquito-rich state.
In the Keys, for example, there are 46 types of mosquitoes, said
Beth Ramson, the public education officer for the Florida Keys Mosquito Control
District, with the aedes Aegyptai comprising just 1% of the population.
However, Aedes aegyptai favor areas that are densely populated with humans, and
in Key West they make up 20% of the mosquito population.
Ramson said Keys mosquito control isn’t fundamentally shifting
its approach this summer in light of the Zika outbreak across Latin America.
Since a Key West dengue scare in 2010, they’ve attempted to inspect each
Keys property every six weeks. But they are moving staff around and planning to
hire two additional inspectors so they can visit properties even more often
this wet season, especially in Key West.
The story is a bit different in the Tampa area, where
Hillsborough County mosquito control has purchased 20 new mosquito traps,
director Carlos Fernandes said. The traps were needed in order to obtain
population estimates in specific areas for Aedes aegyptai, which are able to
evade traps recommended by the Centers for Disease Control that Hillsborough
otherwise uses, Fernandes said. He added that his team has been “highly
motivated” by the Zika virus.
Of the 102 confirmed Zika cases in Florida, none had come
as a result of someone being bitten by a mosquito while in the state, according
to the Herald report. Nevertheless, an online poll conducted in early April by
the firm YouGov found that 42% of Americans are less likely to take a trip to
Florida due to concerns about Zika.
The firm was funded by U.K.-based Oxitec, which is vying for
final approval from the Food and Drug Administration to release genetically
modified mosquitoes that would produce sterile offspring just outside of Key
West. That plan, endorsed by Keys mosquito control, has gotten renewed attention
since the Zika outbreak but was put in place in the aftermath of the small 2010
dengue outbreak that hit the island city.
A February and March poll,
taken of readers of Travel + Leisure Magazine, found that 76% of those with
upcoming trips to Zika-impacted areas would keep their plans.