Malaria Curfew for Palm Beach County?

PalmBeachPost.com ^ | Thursday, August 28, 2003 | Antigone Barton

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

Thursday, August 28 Curfew possible to combat malaria

By Antigone Barton, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Thursday, August 28, 2003

Despite a record seven locally transmitted malaria cases and a looming threat of a West Nile virus outbreak, Palm Beach County health director Dr. Jean Malecki said Wednesday she still hopes to avoid a curfew.

"I'm hoping people will take responsibility for themselves without our having to turn their lives upside down," she said.

But, she said, she learned as a Girl Scout leader, "Always be prepared."

What experts are calling the most significant malaria outbreak in Florida since the late 1940s will end eventually, she said.

It will happen, she said, "when people stop getting bit."

No new cases were discovered Wednesday, she said.

But, she said, she is prepared for this: "I will guarantee you if people don't protect themselves, we will see a human West Nile virus case, too."

The day after an insecticide-spraying plane flew over the most densely mosquito-populated areas of the county for the second time in less than a week, Malecki stressed the key to ending the threats of mosquito-borne diseases here lies as much in people control as it does in bug control.

It was a message echoed by the chief of the infectious disease department at JFK Medical Center, where five of the seven malaria cases have been diagnosed.

Three people walked into that hospital Wednesday, asking to be tested for the disease. They were the first to seek testing since the outbreak began. Dr. Larry Bush would like to see more.

"We're hoping people ask for tests because that's going to break the cycle," he said. He worries more about the people he hasn't seen than about the patients he's treated.

"It would be naive to think that only these seven people are infected," he said. "None of the five we've seen here are not a problem anymore. They've all been treated appropriately."

It is the people who haven't been treated that are the source of an ongoing outbreak.

They are joined in the cycle of transmission by a mosquito that Professor Jonathan Day of the Florida Entomology Laboratory in Vero Beach calls "a fascinating species."

The species -- anopheles quadrimaculatus, one of more than 80 species found in Florida -- likes clean, still, permanent water near vegetation and avoids light, he said.

And while that brings them to roadside drainage ditches and canals, they also like people, he said. It is a set of preferences that brings them in contact with homeless people sleeping under bridges.

Noting that one of the seven residents diagnosed with the disease is homeless, as was one of the two victims in the 1996 outbreak, Day draws this scenario:

"A homeless person infected for 10 days could get 50 bites a night, and infect 500 mosquitoes," he said, adding, "I'm not sure that happened."

Yet, that number now appears more reasonable to Day than does an earlier speculation.

"Early on in Lake Worth it was hoped only one mosquito was involved at that point," he said.

The outbreak began in July when two neighbors living west of Lake Worth were diagnosed with the disease. Several weeks passed before the third patient was diagnosed, but doctors suspected he had been infected at the same time as the first victims.

But four patients diagnosed in the past week put an end to the early optimism, because they appear to have been infected in August. The life span of a parasite-bearing mosquito is only two weeks.

The malaria scare inevitably will end, said Day, who notes that 17 percent of the mosquito population dies every day, and that by mid-September mosquito-breeding begins to wane.

"This problem will be solved in time," he said. "The only thing we don't know is how many more human cases there will be."

antigone_barton@pbpost.com

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

[FreedomPoster]

Bring back DDT.

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

YAY! I was beginning to think FR shut down.

/sarc

[Constitution Day]

Heh heh.

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

COOL!!! Hadn't seen that one!!! I moved from the desert of AZ , to mosquito-ville. I grew up in NJ, where everyone claimed the mosquito was the state bird. I miss the desert.

[Constitution Day]

The mosquitos here in NC have been terrible this year.

We've had cases of Eastern Equine Encephalitis [EEE] and West Nile, but as yet, no malaria that I know of.

Good thing, too... the drug they give [Lariam] to ward off malaria has some side effects, I have heard.
My wife & I had to take it for an overseas trip back in 1999 but did not experience any ill effects.

[joesnuffy]

This malaria deaths and west nile virus deaths can be laid at the feet of
Rachel Carson and her B.S. book "Silent Spring" this plus her greenie minons...
Bring back DDT.....you green morons...its very simple...& it works...

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

You know, political candidates running for office down here could easily use the mosquito as a platform.Okay...I'll stop.

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

This must be what you're talking about:

[Colorado Doug]

We need more wetlands

[genefromjersey]

This will brighten your day ( and probably make Michelle Malkin do cartwheels !)

The disease is believed to have been re-introduced to the area by immigrants from Central America. Apparently the diesase is so endemic in some locations,the residents there acquire immunity...but become carriers,who act as a "reservoir" for the disease.

When they come to Florida, and are bitten by mosquitos,the disease gets passed along to the non-immune "locals".

There was a similar (small) outbreak in the Roanoke,Va area earlier this summer."Illegals" living in swampy areas got bitten. The skeeters, in turn, passed along their "supplemental ration" to some teenagers, who liked to hang out in the same swampy area.

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

The other night, when there was a fairly decent breeze & the air was somewhat drier, I took my children outside before dinner to burn off some energy. I sprayed us all with a bug repellent before we went outside.

We weren't outside more than 5 minutes, and I had to swat a mosquito off of my younger child. Mind you, it was maybe, 4:30 p.m.

I went back inside, and grabbed a stronger repellent, and went back outside to spray the kids again. A neighbor, whose children had also come out to play, ran over to me and asked that I *not* spray my children; that I was "harming them irreparably."

I continued spraying my children (as my older one began interrupting with "Mommy, what does 'irreparably' mean?"), and said something to this person, like, "Really...I'll have to look that one up" (hoping she'd just bug off).

Without a blink, she *grabbed the spray bottle* and insisted that I stop, in a stern and loud tone. She then stated that if I wasn't going to do it for my own children, then I was "forcing" her to do it for hers--that I was "spraying toxins into the air that" her "children breathe."

I was so shocked, and my older child became frightened by this woman's rant, that I chose to go inside instead of scaring my child further.

I did grab the bottle back first...

I could use some ideas on how to better handle this in the future...FReepers?

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

Lovely.

I love Michelle Malkin!

Please see my #17. I could've used her that day.

[lasisra]

You can tell her that West Nile Virus killed hundreds of people in the U.S. last year, and malaria kills *millions* of people worldwide every year, but DEET (which I assume was the active ingredient in your repellent) has *NEVER* been shown to harm a single person. Tell her she is the one harming her children through her inability to distinguish between *REAL* risk and irrational, unsubstantiated fears.

If she continues to be argumentative, tell her, that if she ever comes onto your property and snatches something out of your hand again, you'll press charges for trespass and assault.

Most urgent, however, is to undo the damage that nitwit did to *your* children. She caused them to fear bug repellent - and far worse, she caused them to think that you would do something harmful to them! GRRRR!!!

Hopefully you've already talked to them. If you haven't please do. If your older child is capable of asking the meaning of "irreparably", he/she is old enough to understand a simple explanation of the real risks vs. irrational fears.

I hated it the first time I had to explain to my oldest child that not *all* adults are responsible, intelligent, well-educated, or even trustworthy. I hated to strip away that part of my child's innocence.

But teaching children to think about the source of information as part of judging its value and accuracy is crucial. They will be bombarded with all kinds of garbage and propaganda throughout their lives, and you have to prepare them to deal with it.

They need to learn early on to trust their parents first, then others who love them and care for them, and to put least stock in the words of strangers.

I told my oldest that when he is older, he will make his own decisions, but in order to make good decisions he will need good information. I told him that as he gets older I will teach him how to tell good information from bad, but until then he must trust my judgment, since I love him and have his best interests at heart.

Good luck, and keep using that bug repellent!

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

*******I told my oldest that when he is older, he will make his own decisions, but in order to make good decisions he will need good information. I told him that as he gets older I will teach him how to tell good information from bad, but until then he must trust my judgment, since I love him and have his best interests at heart.

Good luck, and keep using that bug repellent!*******

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply! :)

I really loved the part which I c & p'd above.

My older child is very sensitive. After we came inside that day, I sat with her on my lap, and debriefed her as much as I could regarding what had occurred. Unfortunately for us, too many times recently, have we witnessed grown ups acting worse than children, so this topic was sort of similar, although this time "Mommy" was involved.

What was funny about her reaction, was that she said, "It's okay Mommy...I'll bet her parents didn't teach her to not grab things when she was a child, huh?" Very astute, I thought.

Anyway, I will continue to protect & spray my children, despite what the tree huggers think.