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 By contrast, the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, has been
active since the late 1920s. With an annual budget of over $15
million, it now deploys four helicopters, two airplanes and 33
inspectors covering 125 square miles.
Because they are funded by local taxpayer dollars, U.S. mosquito
control programs reflect deep economic disparities between
communities, leaving some at-risk locations badly unprepared for the
virus that is spreading through the Americas.
First detected in Brazil last year, Zika has been linked in that
country to more than 1,300 cases of microcephaly, a rare birth
defect defined by unusually small heads.
The outbreak is expected to reach the continental United States in
the coming weeks as temperatures rise and mosquito populations
multiply. In interviews with Reuters, more than a dozen state and
local health officials and disease control experts say they worry
they will have neither the money nor the time to plug gaping holes
in the nation's defenses.
They say the poorest communities along the Gulf of Mexico with a
history of dengue outbreaks are at the highest risk.
States in the south are "woefully under-invested," said Dr. Thomas
Dobbs, epidemiologist for the Mississippi State Department of
Health. "You have these gaping holes in capacity," he said, with
many poor communities mobilizing their first mosquito control
efforts in years.
Among the best-prepared is Harris County, Texas, which includes the
city of Houston. It dedicates $4.5 million a year to controlling
disease carriers, or vectors, such as mosquitoes, ticks or rodents.
The 50-year-old program is considered one of the best in the
country. Traps have been set up in 268 areas in the county to
capture and catalog mosquitoes and test them for pesticide
resistance. It is adding new traps for the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
that carry Zika.
New York City plans to spend $21 million over three years to combat
the virus. Aedes aegypti have never been found in the city, so its
efforts will target Aedes albopictus, a mosquito believed to be
capable of spreading the virus.
At the other end of the spectrum, some communities may only have a
"Chuck in the truck" - someone who does spraying runs with a fogger
attached to his pickup, said Stan Cope, president of the American
Mosquito Control Association. Many municipalities do not even have
that much.
The Obama administration has asked Congress for nearly $1.9 billion
to fight Zika, including $453 million to assist with emergency
response, laboratory capacity and mosquito control. Lawmakers in the
House of Representatives and Senate have presented their own funding
proposals, which each fall far short of that sum.
STOPGAP FUNDING
To help plug some of the gaps until Congress acts, the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention is adding $38 million to an
existing infectious diseases grant program to expand lab testing
capacity and surveillance for Zika.
For the first time, CDC will also provide an additional $15 million
to help local programs most in need, CDC entomologist Janet
McAllister told Reuters.
She said states' proposals are due by the end of May and could cover
funding for trucks, equipment and chemicals, as well as hiring
contractors.
The CDC has also earmarked $25 million for at-risk states and
territories, though the funds would primarily go health departments
to help them deal with Zika cases.
But the CDC money is not expected to reach states until August at
the earliest, late in the game to do mosquito surveillance.
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The agency estimates that Aedes aegypti could be present in as many
as 27 U.S. states, though the chief worry will be areas with recent
dengue fever cases, McAllister said. Those include South Florida,
South Texas, Southern California, areas along the U.S. border with
Mexico, Louisiana and Hawaii. (Graphic: http://tmsnrt.rs/1QvaMW6)
Frank Welch, medical director for the office of community
preparedness for Louisiana, a state with 64 different types of
mosquitoes, said his concern was that federal emergency funding
might get delayed until the fall.
"That would certainly be too late for immediate Zika preparedness,"
he said.
DIFFERENT ANIMAL
Even communities with established, well-funded insect-fighting
programs may lack the tools to prevent an outbreak.
"We don't feel horribly confident that anybody in the world is very
good at controlling these mosquitoes," said Susanne Kluh,
Scientific-Technical Services Director for the Greater Los Angeles
County Vector Control District.
One reason is that most U.S. programs are designed to deal with
nuisance mosquitoes or those carrying West Nile, which are
controlled by spraying at night and dropping tablets that kill
mosquito larvae into catch basins.
Confronting Aedes aegypti, a daytime biter that lives in and around
homes and breeds in tiny containers of water, is more expensive and
inherently less efficient.
"It's a different animal. It requires a very different method to
control," said Michael Doyle, a former CDC entomologist who directs
mosquito control in the Florida Keys.
In 2009, Doyle oversaw efforts to fight dengue, also carried by Aedes aegypti. Inspectors went door to door every week, dumping
containers of water in back yards that could serve as breeding
sites, spraying pesticides to kill adult mosquitoes and using a
liquid non-toxic bacterial formulation to kill larvae. After every
rainstorm, they continue to spray 80,000 acres with the larvicide.
That has proved expensive at $16 per acre (0.4 hectare) plus
helicopter costs. The efforts have only reduced the Aedes aegypti
mosquito population by half since 2010, which Doyle said is not
enough to prevent disease transmission.
In California, Aedes aegypti mosquitoes arrived as recently as 2013
and have spread to seven counties from south of Fresno to San Diego.
"It has really changed the manpower needs," Kluh said.
Kluh said her district traditionally treats easily accessible public
areas, such as catch basins, storm drains and the occasional
swimming pool.
"This battle against these mosquitoes happens in every backyard and
in tiny sources as small as a bottle cap filled with sprinkler
water."
(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Michele Gershberg and
Tomasz Janowski)
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