Posted on 06/23/2004 10:47:00 AM PDT by eyespysomething
U.S. officials warn of new mosquito disease
Associated Press
Atlanta — As if West Nile virus were not bad enough, U.S. health officials are now on the lookout for another mosquito-borne disease, fearing it could become a permanent part of the U.S. landscape if it entered the country.
Rift Valley fever, which originated in Africa, is the only disease at the top of both human health and agriculture lists of dangerous diseases.
The virus can kill people, with a near 1-per-cent mortality rate, making it deadlier than West Nile. Rift Valley also poses a greater threat to cattle and sheep.
It kills up to 30 per cent of the livestock it infects and if it were found in animals here, it probably would prompt livestock bans by other countries.
“This is not a disease that occurs here now, but we want to make sure people are aware of the signs and symptoms,” said Dr. Thomas Ksiazek, chief of the special pathogens branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The medical and public health community need to be mindful of it.”
Most people get a flu-like illness when infected. Some may develop serious symptoms, including liver or kidney disease, Dr. Ksiazek said.
About 14 per cent of those seriously ill with Rift Valley fever in previous outbreaks died. West Nile kills about 10 per cent of those with serious complications, such as brain inflammation.
The virus is worrisome because at least 30 species of mosquitoes are capable of carrying it from cattle or sheep to humans, far more than the kind of mosquitoes that can carry West Nile. People also can catch it by handling the blood or fluids of an infected animal.
Scientists said that Rift Valley fever was being researched as a possible weapon during the Cold War and showed promise because of its stability in an aerosol form.
Despite the concern, health and agricultural officials have been slow to prepare for Rift Valley, said Dr. Corrie Brown, a professor of veterinary pathology at the University of Georgia and a member of the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture's advisory committee for animal and poultry diseases.
“I think people weren't very worried about it until we started to think about agri-terror,” Dr. Brown said.
The disease could appear in North America as mysteriously as West Nile, which first showed up as the culprit in the unexplained deaths of birds in New York in 1999.
The virus was first identified in a 1930 sheep outbreak in Kenya's Rift Valley in eastern Africa. For the next 70 years, it remained on the continent, emerging for the first time outside Africa in outbreaks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 2000.
In those cases, about 100 people died and 800 became ill.
Luckily, the virus seems to have disappeared, and there have been no new cases there since 2001.
Rift Valley fever is one of several emerging viruses being studied by the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Tex. One focus is better vaccines, since there is no approved vaccine for people or livestock in case of an outbreak, Dr. Ksiazek said. The military developed a vaccine that has been approved for testing in people.
“It would really be hard to control this without a vaccine,” said Dr. C.J. Peters, director of biodefence at UTMB in Galveston.
I was just there looking at them at their website!
I may go by Ace Hardware on the way home today, especially with the 4-6 weeks it takes to really get going.
Thanks for the testimonials, I've always been skeptical of things like this product, thinking it'll never work.
How often do you change the cartridges? Does it run all the time? (I guess it would have to)
I was looking for a pic like that but couldn't find one.........I'm to young to have done it.
How long can it run on one propane tank?
I have a Mosquito Magnet like the one you pictured is that the exact one that you got? I don't think the bag fits well enough in mine, does yours?
The very morning after I set it up we were mosquito free. I have a tenant who likes to sleep outside on warm nights and she came over the very next morning and told me how amazing it was the night before......No mosquitoes! Don't know about that 4 to 6 week thing. Mine started working IMMEDIATELY.
The cartridges last three weeks, as does the propane in the cannister (not included, btw). I had my own skepticism about this invention, but not on the morning after I turned it on. It's AMAZING! You'll be thanking yourself all summer.(and so will your neighbors; it covers a whole acre.)
It DOES run all the time, but I suppose that by winter we can put it away until summer.
They say you should refill the propane tank once every 3 weeks, and the cartriges at about the same interval. They say you may need to clean the net more often depending on how many mosquitos you have.
And yes, it does run all the time.
See http://www.mosquitomagnet.com/ for details.
I have had to fight with the bag a little, but it's okay. They have very good customer service; call them about it.
About three weeks.
Yes, not the least of which were a blurb on John Stossel's "Ten lies myths and downright stupidities," and a segment on "Penn and Teller's BULL5h17!"
The amounts used right before it was banned were enormous. Huge billowing clouds sprayed around folks, food, etc. When used in a local (non-governmental over use) modes, i.e. small pumped hand sprayers directing the chemical to form prophalactyc barriers, it is very effective and very harmless!
My dad tells me his father used to come in from the fields soaked from head to toe with DDT and other pesticides.
When my dad was milking cows, he'd spritz them down with DDT to keep the flies off, and the chemical solution would drip down into the milking bucket.
Ther Saudis bring in huge numbers of live animals every year for the pilgrims to sacrifice at Mecca. After the Hadj is over, the animal population is drastically lower.
I think they just got lucky in the virus not being able to establish itself.
So9
Ah, thanks for the info.
Mosquito net the goats.
PING
Great. Something else to worry about. :-P
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