West Nile Virus in Texas: 10 dead and hundreds infected in Dallas County

http://www.examiner.com/article/west-nile-virus-texas-10-dead-and-hundreds-infected-dallas-county ^ | 8/18/2012 | Heather Tooley

[dragnet2]

The West Nile Virus has hit Dallas County in Texas, which has killed 10 people and infected hundreds of others.

Planes began spraying for harmful mosquitoes in Dallas north of Interstate 30 and east of the Dallas North Tollway at 10 p.m. Thursday night and continued until early Friday morning.

[dragnet2]

Local NBC affiliate played a couple of clips showing people claiming that the spray schedule was racist

Everything seems racist nowadays. Very odd.

[Spktyr]

Rain or flood, all you need is standing water. Doesn’t matter if it’s here or Missouri or Montana or out in CA. It’s Dallas this year, could easily be OKC or Memphis next year.

[gop4lyf]

We had a wet Spring, then a pretty dry Summer. We have actually had 3 good days of rain this week. Maybe that will help.

[ZULU]

Uh, like, maybe Ellis Island wasn’t such a bad idea after all???

[Tennessee Nana]

PING

[redshawk]

Now that you mention it, I too have not seen mosquitos this year.

[SaraJohnson]

Sorry to hear that, mlizzy. :(

[SaraJohnson]

Looks like he was battling both cancer and west nile. Yikes!

[steve86]

What are they contributing this to?

To the residents of the area -- Hispanic and non-Hispanic, legal and illegal, felons and law abiders. No favoritism or discrimination whatsoever. I'm very proud.

[SaraJohnson]

I don’t know what they are spraying, but it has some people upset because it’s serious business.

Bugs too, don’t mess with Texas. :)

[SaraJohnson]

I have a friend in Maryland who got it. It did not kill her but she has to live with the symptoms. It does not just go away once you get it.

[Squawk 8888]

Don’t know if it’s effective in California’s climate, but up here they’ve been dropping larvacide into catchbasins and ponds and it seems to work. It’s been at least a couple of decades since I last encountered a mosquito here.

[Squawk 8888]

Nope, it’s been “in the wild” over here for more than a decade. Don’t blame the muzzies, blame the enviros because spraying and larvaciding would solve the problem.

[Squawk 8888]

My understanding is that larvacides are more effective than spraying. DDT is useful for treating indoor surfaces but blanket spraying doesn’t do much more.

[Squawk 8888]

If antibiotics did the trick then it wasn’t West Nile. West Nile is a viral infection and antibiotics are useless against it.

[Squawk 8888]

I read about 10 years back that birds were the primary vector in North America. Our local health department’s response includes testing dead birds.

[Squawk 8888]

I think you’re right- I’ve read that it’s around wherever there are mosquitos.

[dragnet2]

No, they are the end result of WNV.

[Kickass Conservative]

>”I haven’t even seen a mosquito this summer”<

It’s the ones you don’t see that you have to worry about.

[fwdude]

I haven’t even seen a mosquito this summer.

I'm in the D/FW Metroplex and I have barely seen any, either.