More mosquito-borne ills on the way

More mosquito-borne ills on the way

Experts say malaria, others may not be far behind West Nile
A participant at the American Mosquito Control Association Convention in Minneapolis examines a slide of mosquitoes at a display booth on March 3.

ASSOCIATED PRESS


MINNEAPOLIS, March 10 — The West Nile virus is in the United States to stay and other mosquito-borne illnesses, such as yellow fever, dengue fever, malaria, encephalitis and Rift Valley fever, may not be far behind, say experts on infectious diseases.


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‘This is going to be the world we’re going to live in for the next couple of years.’
— MICHAEL OSTERHOLM
Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota

MOSQUITOES HAVE a well-deserved reputation as a nuisance, biting so aggressively in Minnesota they’re sometimes caricatured as the state bird. But the mission of scientists and government officials to control it is more important than ever.
Last week 600 experts gathered for the annual meeting of the American Mosquito Control Association - an event that has taken on a higher profile due to the spread of the West Nile virus and concerns about other exotic diseases.
Last year alone, the United States recorded more than 4,000 cases of West Nile and 256 deaths from it. The mosquito-borne virus causes fevers and aches and can lead to potentially fatal swelling of the brain.

“It’s just an amazing story of an invasion,” said Roger Nasci, a research entomologist in the Fort Collins, Colo., office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
West Nile is here to stay and other diseases are likely to follow, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

‘IT’S GOING TO HAPPEN’
“It’s going to happen,” he said. “As water runs down a hill, it’s going to happen.”
The world is more mobile, “fast and furiously” transporting exotic products, animals and bugs from continent to continent, Osterholm predicted.

And with that comes an increased chance of spreading more mosquito-borne diseases such as yellow fever, dengue fever, malaria, encephalitis and Rift Valley fever, a deadly virus transmitted from livestock to humans by mosquitoes that causes diarrhea, nausea, and internal bleeding and can result in death.
Osterholm said scientists should be working to predict what the next diseases might be, trying to prevent them and preparing to fight them.
That, he acknowledged, is a difficult task - especially in tough financial times when government funding of research and mosquito control programs are being cut in many states. People who deal with mosquitoes are going to have to do much more with much less, he said.
“This is going to be the world we’re going to live in for the next couple of years,” he said, urging those in the field to push hard for more funding.

NEW TECHNOLOGY MAY HELP
Some at the meeting, like Michael Forbes, were pushing new technology to strapped state and local governments. Forbes’ company, LinksPoint, helped develop a geographic modeling system with Hunter College in New York City that helps officials there pinpoint where West Nile hotspots are based on where dead birds show up.
The technology, Forbes said, could easily be used in other cities and states, allowing targeted pesticide spraying in specific areas. An article about the approach will appear in next month’s American Journal of Epidemiology.

Although most experts agree that pesticides are still the best way to control mosquitoes, alternatives do exist. Some are widely used, such as a soil bacteria that acts as a poison to the critters and a hormone mimic that prevents larvae from becoming adults. Others, such as mosquito-eating fish and dragonflies, are used in a few areas.
There are more than 2,700 species of mosquitoes in the world, including more than 700 in the United States.
A segment of the conference also will be dedicated to assessing the threat of using mosquitoes to spread bioterrorism agents.
Osterholm said that was a remote possibility, but mentioned another scenario that concerned him more - that terrorists might use mosquito-spraying trucks to spray harmful chemicals in neighborhoods.
“Next time there is a spray truck ... make damn sure you know whose truck that is,” he said. “We have to make certain that all of us are the good guys.”

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