Page 18 - Cityview May-June 2017

Reducing Risk of Zika and West Nile Through Mosquito Control
Your summer cookouts
may have a number of
uninvited guests this
year: MOSQUITOES.
These pesky insects bring more than an annoying and lingering itch—the number of cases of Zika and West Nile virus, both of which are transmitted through mosquitoes, is expected to increase this year. Meteorologists say that warmer weather creates an ideal environ- ment for mosquitoes to reproduce and carry these harmful viruses,
so it is vital to manage the problem with mosquito control.
Since West Nile virus arrived in the U.S. in 1999, an estimated
3 million people have been infected.
Contracting the virus from birds, mosquitoes can then transmit it to humans, which may lead to menin- gitis, encephalitis—and even kidney disease or death. Eight in 10 people
infected with West Nile virus don’t get sick right away, and the virus can burrow deep into the body. Years later, it can surface with a persistent infection that can lead to kidney disease. Just last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 2,060 cases of the West Nile virus in the U.S., which resulted in 119 deaths.
But West Nile virus isn’t the only harmful virus that mosquitoes carry: cases of Zika are on the rise. Although deaths from Zika are rare, the virus can cause microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with small heads and incomplete brain development. Zika is also linked to infant eye abnormalities