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Worried callers ask about West Nile
By MATTHEW WAITE
© St. Petersburg Times, A woman called the Pasco County Health Department on Thursday. Her daughter had been bitten by a mosquito and the woman wanted to know if she should take her to the emergency room. Other callers to Tampa Bay area officials had birds found dead a week ago in their trash or in the yard and wanted to know if they should dig them up. Another woman called the St. Petersburg Times bureau in Port Richey to say that she had found a mosquito in her home. She put it in a plastic bag. Pasco County Health Department officials were bombarded with calls a day after announcing that a bird found dead last month in Zephyrhills had the West Nile virus. The Mosquito Control Commission offices also were inundated with calls, everyone wondering what they should do. The chorus of responses: same thing as before West Nile came to Pasco. Don't go out at dusk or dawn, because that's when mosquitoes are most active. Wear repellent if you go out after dark, as well as long pants and long sleeves. Dump out any standing water around the house. "That's the same information that's been out there all summer," said Chris Abarca, the acting Health Education Program manager at the Pasco County Health Department. "It's the best advice." State and county officials told people not to panic, and on Thursday night the state didn't include Pasco in an expanded medical alert area, which now includes 33 North Florida counties. The state added Alachua, Dixie and Gilchrist counties on Thursday, after two birds tested positive for West Nile in Alachua. Dr. Marc Yacht, director of Pasco's Health Department, said Pasco County wasn't included because the case found here is isolated, more than 100 miles and several counties away from the nearest other case. "This one sighting really just means the bird was found in Pasco, but it doesn't mean it got it (West Nile) in Pasco," he said. There isn't enough activity in Pasco to warrant being included in the medical alert, Yacht said. Two other area cases, a dead horse in the Trilby area of Pasco and another in Hernando County, were tested for West Nile but came up negative. But that doesn't mean area health officials aren't on alert, Yacht said. He said the Health Department's screening of dead birds and horses, both primary indicators of the virus' spread, continues. That said, the other advice health officials were giving out Thursday was not to panic. Yes, West Nile is new to Florida, but it's really a variant of an old problem, said Terry McElroy, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. "The fact is, Florida has had mosquito-borne encephalitis problems for decades," he said. Those problems include the more common eastern equine encephalitis, which strikes a handful of Floridians every year, or St. Louis encephalitis. West Nile is very rare in humans, and doctors say West Nile is actually less dangerous than eastern equine or St. Louis encephalitis, McElroy said. So far only three West Nile cases have been reported in humans in Florida, none of them fatal. "Most people who get it are not going to become very sick from it," McElroy said. "If anything, they will display flulike symptoms." As for mosquito control, Doug Wassmer, an entomologist with the Pasco County Mosquito Control Commission, said his agency placed traps in two places in east Pasco on Thursday and would likely add a third. The traps will give officials an idea of how many types of mosquitoes are in east Pasco, as well as how dense they are, he said. Wassmer said the traps are the first step in a plan that would eventually have the county's mosquito control efforts, which now cover only west Pasco, expand to areas around Zephyrhills and in Shady Hills. If needed, Wassmer said, they could start mosquito control in east Pasco very quickly. But under normal circumstances, he said, a mosquito control plan, funded by a year of tax collections from the people in the area, could take more than a year to get going. In west Pasco, Wassmer said, the West Nile alerts had mosquito control sprayers out in large numbers last week, responding to citizen concerns. Because of that, he said, west Pasco residents have less to worry about. "We just don't have a lot of mosquitoes out there because we really pounded them last week," he said. Horse in Hernando tests negative for illnessesA dead horse found in southwest Hernando County has tested negative for the West Nile virus, as well as the more common eastern equine encephalitis, said Ann Rowe, a spokeswoman for the state Emergency Operations Center. Rowe said the results came in Thursday and showed that the horse didn't die from either of the mosquito-borne illnesses. She said no cause of death was listed. The horse was the second, along with one from Pasco County, in the North Suncoast area to be tested. Each tested negative. -- Staff writer Matthew Waite can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is waite@sptimes.com.
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