More than half way through this year’s mosquito season, only one
dead bird has tested positive for the dread disease
Hollister – Health officials warned that West Nile virus could bombard the county, along with the rest of California in 2005, but with only a few months of mosquito season remaining just one dead bird has tested positive for the disease locally and reported human cases are significantly lower statewide than in 2004.
The fear that West Nile could explode in the region in 2005 was fostered by state health officials, who warned that the disease typically gets a foothold in an area in one year and is much worse in the second year. While San Benito County got away with only a few dead birds and no human infections last year, officials predicted the virus would hit Northern California and the Central Valley hard this year.
Although officials cautioned residents not to let their guard down, San Benito County Agricultural Commissioner Paul Matulich said the combination of residents taking proper precautions against mosquito breeding grounds and old fashioned luck could have factored into San Benito’s slow season.
“West Nile is something new. Ten times as many people die in the United States every year from the regular flu than West Nile,” Matulich said. “It’s something exotic, it’s kind of been blown out of proportion.”
San Benito County Public Health officials confirmed Thursday that a bird found in San Juan Bautista tested positive for the disease, which is the first evidence of West Nile’s presence in the county this year.
While Dr. Elizabeth Falade, the county’s public health officer, emphasized that the risk for serious illness in humans is low, she said in a statement that most people who are infected with the virus will not exhibit any symptoms.
Matulich echoed Falade’s statements, saying that some county residents could be infected with the disease and not be aware they have it. The disease is transmitted to humans and animals through a mosquito bite. Mosquitos become carriers for the disease when they feed on infected birds.
“Eighty percent get bit and have it and don’t even know it,” Matulich said. “A few might get a fever and slight case of the flu, but it’s the 1 percent who get it, they’re the ones in danger.”
That 1 percent – the elderly and those with lowered immune systems are most susceptible – will develop serious neurological illnesses such as encephalitis and meningitis, which are deadly.
California’s Interim State Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Becker announced Friday that West Nile claimed its fourth victim in the state this year, an elderly San Joaquin County man who had been hospitalized for West Nile-related symptoms before his death. To date, West Nile has been detected in 47 of the state’s 58 counties, with 134 human cases reported from 19 counties. Of the 19 counties with human cases, the only areas near San Benito County are Merced County with one case and Fresno County with nine. In Fresno County, one of those individuals died, according to the California Department of Health Services.
By comparison, in 2004, 28 people in California died from the disease and 779 human cases were reported to the Center for Disease Control, according to its Web site.
First discovered in the United States in New York in 1999, West Nile Virus quickly spread west and was detected in California in 2002. That year, mosquitos were discovered carrying the disease in southern California, causing some locals to worry the virus would make its way up-state.
To help prevent a large-scale problem, San Benito County, which doesn’t have an official mosquito abatement program due to lack of funds, created a West Nile Task Force that has been collaborating on ways to educate residents and prevent mosquito infestation within the county for more than a year.
The county’s civil grand jury slammed the task force in its annual report released last month for doing “too little, too late” concerning West Nile, however public health nurse Kathy Boulware said the county has done as much as it can with the resources provided.
And it’s working, she said.
“We have been able to get the message out there and I think people have paid attention,” Boulware said. “You do the best you can, and we’ve done that. Public health can be invisible sometimes. When things don’t happen you don’t realize public health has had a hand in it. It goes on under the radar.”
And while San Benito County Supervisor Anthony Botelho said he’s proud of the work county officials have done to stave off the virus’ spread as much as possible, he admonished residents not to become lackadaisical when it comes to those pesky insects.
“We’re only two-thirds through the mosquito season. This is going to be an ongoing problem,” Botelho said. “This year maybe it will be light, maybe. Our health officials want to continue to emphasize it could be something that could be a concern.”
To report dead birds visit www.westnile.ca.gov or call 1-877-WNV-BIRD.
