With the threat of West Nile virus looming and San Benito County
lacking an agency to monitor the problem, a newly formed task force
of government and health officials will begin meeting to discuss a
way to combat its spread.
With the threat of West Nile virus looming and San Benito County lacking an agency to monitor the problem, a newly formed task force of government and health officials will begin meeting to discuss a way to combat its spread.
At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, the county’s lead health official, Dr. Elizabeth Falade, warned of the virus’ potential effects in the area.
The task force will begin meeting next week and its members include Falade, County Administrative Officer Terrence May, Environmental Health head Bob Shingai, Agricultural Commissioner Paul Matulich and Emergency Services Director Margie Riopel.
May said the county also invited representatives from the State Department of Health Services to attend, but is unsure if they will accept the offer. California Sen. Barbara Boxer also called the local Health Department and asked about San Benito’s prevention plans, according to Falade.
One of Boxer’s main focuses right now, according to Falade, is spreading awareness about the virus and its dangers.
Local officials hope efforts to monitor and prevent the spread here will change the county’s standing as one of the few in the region without an agency to oversee the threat.
“We’d like to be ready when things do happen here, which is the focus of the task force which will be meeting next week,” Falade said.
The task force, she said, plans to identify prevention methods, along with further developing a campaign to educate the community.
West Nile virus – carried by mosquitoes and spread through humans and animals, such as horses and birds – causes illness in about 15 percent of those who contract it. Symptoms include headaches, fever, nausea, body aches and skin rashes. A small percentage of those who get it, less than 1 percent, develop serious illness that can lead to death, according to documents provided by Falade.
The virus arrived in the country in 1999 and has since spread its way across the United States to the West Coast. It has already been detected this year in Southern California through testing of vernal pools, according to Falade.
“We expect that that will happen more this year than in the past,” she told the board.
For more information about West Nile virus, call the Health Department at 637-5367.
