I have a buddy that caught it about a month ago...was in the hospital two weeks! Lives in El Monte.
Posted on 08/25/2004 9:56:28 AM PDT by BurbankKarl
As Los Angeles County's 100th case of West Nile virus was confirmed Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors took steps to assert sweeping new powers to enter private property to eradicate mosquito-breeding spots.
With Los Angeles County cases surpassing those in San Bernardino County, previously hardest hit in the state, the supervisors directed lawyers, health authorities and the agricultural commissioner to draft an ordinance to let officials go onto private property anywhere in the county and clean up standing water in which mosquitoes can breed.
So far, 616 mosquito pools, including 209 in the county, have been reported in the state.
"This would allow them to go onto private property to correct a health nuisance," Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said about the measure for territory inside as well as outside Los Angeles city borders. Other cities also would be covered.
"It's going to be a cooperative effort between county officials and state vector control agencies."
West Nile virus cases in the county were up 69 percent Tuesday from a week earlier -- to the 100 total. That figure surpassed the 98 cases in San Bernardino County, which has had the most in the state and was up 29 percent from a week earlier.
Statewide, 277 human cases have been reported, up 46 percent from a week earlier.
Stagnant water has been cited as a key factor in the breeding of mosquitoes that transmit the virus from infected birds to humans.
The Board of Supervisors plans to vote on the ordinance Sept. 14.
"That's great," said Jack Hazelrigg, general manager of the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District. "We need a tool in our toolbox to get people motivated to eliminate standing water on their property."
Hazelrigg said some property owners refuse to allow his workers to enter to treat stagnant bodies of water, such as unmaintained swimming pools.
Vector control workers can obtain an inspection warrant from a judge to enter private property, but the process is time-consuming. Hazelrigg said the entry problem had not been "significant enough" so far to go to court.
Los Angeles city officials are drafting an ordinance that would allow them to fine people up to $1,000 for refusal to clean up stagnant water.
San Bernardino County officials on Tuesday confirmed that two more people died of the virus. They said both of them had pre-existing medical conditions that made them vulnerable to a neuroinvasive infection. Coroner's officials identified them as Merle Mills, 88, of Loma Linda and Julius Krick, 81, of San Bernardino.
That brings the total number of deaths in San Bernardino County to four, matching the death toll in Los Angeles County. Combined with the death of a 57-year-old Orange County man, those raise the statewide total to nine deaths.
Nearly 850 cases and 20 deaths have been reported nationwide this year, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Vector control officials continue to discuss whether to start spraying pesticides in targeted neighborhoods, particularly in the Van Nuys, Northridge and Pico Rivera areas, where clusters of human cases have been diagnosed.
Hazelrigg said intensified efforts to spray larvicides into sewers, storm drains and flood-control channels to kill mosquito larvae have been successful.
"They brought in some traps (Tuesday), and although they haven't had a chance to analyze them, qualitatively looking at them, it appears the numbers of mosquitoes are significantly lower than anticipated," Hazelrigg said.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles County health officials said they are concerned about two cases of acute flaccid paralysis, a poliolike condition that leaves people partially paralyzed, which the officials say are linked to exposure to the West Nile virus.
Pico Rivera resident Nancy Berny, 43, said her husband, Mario Berny, 44, started getting sick more than two weeks ago and appeared to have suffered a stroke.
"Everything was shaking on his face, and he was walking crooked," she said.
"During the night, his arms became paralyzed. He went to the hospital, and he was having trouble breathing and swallowing. All of a sudden, everything started shutting down on him. He's been in intensive care ever since. He ended up with pneumonia and he's on a breathing tube."
She said her husband is expected to make a complete recovery, but he will need rehabilitation.
Dr. Laurene Mascola, county public health director of the Acute Communicable Disease Control Program, said the poliolike condition can occur when people are bitten by infected mosquitoes, but it's rare. In Colorado, the epicenter of last year's outbreak, 32 people developed the condition.
"It's always concerning when people have illnesses that require substantial amounts of rehabilitative time," Mascola said.
Wow. I forgot there WAS private property in Cali.
This is classic. So four deaths or so in L.A. county might give them reasonable cause to intrude on private property?
There are one billion parallels that can be brought up.
Certainly more deaths yearly are from house fires caused by smoking in bed...should L.A. be allowed to verify that we are falling asleep without cigarettes in-hand?
Hilarious.
I have a buddy that caught it about a month ago...was in the hospital two weeks! Lives in El Monte.
I think they are going after people that have half empty pools with algaed and crud in them...
Yeah, that Constitution thingy can be a real pain. It must be frustrating trying to run a police state.
Los Angeles city officials are drafting an ordinance that would allow them to fine people up to $1,000 for refusal to clean up stagnant water.
You can have stagnant water breeding mosquitos in a tree crotch. There are ordinances in our area forbidding the "adverse pruning" necessary to treat that problem. This sounds more like a tax than a fine.
No joke. This is serious sh!t.
Out here in Ontario (San Bernardino County) hundreds of people have beeen sickened. This is a virus. You have it for the rest of you life.
There are dead crowes falling out of the sky everywhere.
So California is the swimming pool capital of the world and they are giant mosquito farms, if not properly maintained (like the one in the back of my mothers hillbillyish neighbor)
I would not be opposed to large fines for large bodies of stangnat water on ones property. They should set up a hotline to call and report the bastards too.
I'm not making this a joke, but I heard an LA city councilwoman on the radio today saying this epidemic should give authorities the right to enter private property.
And I don't agree.
The virus is serious, as is the influenza virus. Many people die from influenza in L.A. County every year, but I have yet to hear the city council suggest changing the due process standard for entering a person's property to control influenza.
I live very close to you, having just moved to NorthEast Riverside County. We are vigilant with mosquito repellent when we go to the park. But don't lose sight of the very small incidence rate of serious complications from the virus.
Let me add that if an unmaintained pool is VISIBLE to you, then all the city needs to do is visit and cite the offender if it is against city regulations. If not, the city should pass a new law.
I'm not against enforcement of laws against poorly maintained pools. Heck, my neighbor filled his pool despite the fact there was no functional gate between his backyard and the front of his house. We reported him to code enforcement because of the danger to small children (ours).
I'm only against causelss searches. If you see cause, then it's not a causeless search.
I think they are trying to get a better grip before they do mandatory aerial spraying....
if it keeps ramping up at 60% more cases a week til October, there is going to be a huge death count.... of course, the policitians would rather have the deaths than news coverage of them ordering aerial spraying.....everyone remembers the med fly coverage!
Just heard a call over the police scanner. Woman hysterical seeing dead crow outside her front window. Asking Animal Control to hurry over there. I bet the media is on CROW WATCH now.
I dunno about aerial spraying. But they have been spraying Scourge (yes that's actually what it's called) in my vector (The West Valley Mosquito Vector) for over a month, paticularly in Fontanna where several people have already died.
They are not on crow watch out here. There is hardly a day that goes by that you don't see one of these suckers laying on the ground dead from what I suppose is encephalitis.
They are spraying in Florida, and Colorado, and debating it in Arizona.
Woman May Be Infected With Polio-Like Form Of West Nile Virus
POSTED: 2:28 pm PDT August 25, 2004
UPDATED: 3:27 pm PDT August 25, 2004
LOS ANGELES -- Federal health officials are worried about a polio-like form of West Nile virus that has infected more than 30 people.
The latest victim is a California water skier who was bitten by an infected mosquito in Colorado last summer.
Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta are monitoring the rare disease known as acute flaccid paralysis which struck down 32 residents last year in Colorado.
The disease is carried by birds and transmitted to humans by mosquitoes.
About 20 percent of those bitten by an infected insect show flu-like symptoms, while about one in 100 suffer the most severe form of the illness.
Just to clarify, I can't imagine that several people have died in Fontana this year due to West Nile virus.
According to the California West Nile Virus page here: http://www.westnile.ca.gov/ only two people have died in San Bernardino County this year.
The above is a helpful link for reporting dead birds and to inform others about mosquito control.
Let me add that I'm personally concerned about WNV, especially on behalf of my children. At a personal level, I'm alarmed and worried.
But my brian continues to try to keep my worrying tendency at bay. I continue to try to keep my wife and I from falling for the 'local news frenzy' trap by reminding myself about the relatively SMALL rates of infection and infinitessimally small rates of death in what is a large and populous state.
I believe they were both in Fontanna.
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