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Collin County ups West Nile prevention efforts: Cities begin awareness campaigns
Kelsey Kruzich/Staff photo - To help prevent a West Nile virus outbreak similar to that which occurred last year, counties and municipalities in North Texas have already begun surveying, testing and spraying areas where mosquitos tend to breed, such as in low-lying creek beds and storm drains.
By Kelley Chambers, kchambers@starlocalnews.com, @KelleyChambers7 on Twitter
Local counties and cities have been working together to develop a strong front against the West Nile virus as the warmer temps roll in.
The heightened plan of attack comes months after cities like Plano, Allen and McKinney experienced what many would call an alarming number of cases last summer.
The county is only responsible for the unincorporated areas, as its cities fund their own mosquito programs. However, there is concern that if an emergency declaration is made like there was in Dallas, Denton and Tarrant counties last year, Collin County would be unable to reimburse its cities due to lack of funds from the state.
Municipalities are beefing up their prevention efforts, as no money will be available from the Department of State Health Services for emergency declaration spraying, as the money used for last year's outbreak was leftover money from years of preparedness savings, said Misty Brown, development services division manager for Collin County.
The state paid $2.7 million last year for aerial spraying in Dallas and Denton counties, which experienced more than 800 human cases of the virus.
In Collin County, 76 West Nile cases were reported, resulting in four deaths.
"We had far more surveillance than what we normally have. It was just totally different from what we normally go through," said Peggy Wittie, chief epidemiologist for Collin County Health Care Services. "[The CDC] is increasing their surveillance of the mosquito populations, as well as surveillance of West Nile activity ... with the expectation and the hopes that keeping them low can potentially keep the [number of] humans affected low."
Celina, Frisco, Plano and McKinney have increased their routine, seasonal trappings of mosquitos, identifying multiple positive mosquito pools around "hot zones," Brown said. McKinney and Plano have also performed targeted larviciding and ground spraying to prevent breeding in these zones.
The city of McKinney will begin applying larvicide next week to some of those targeted areas near creeks and other places where stagnant water is known to collect. The city, which will also start trapping mosquitos in about a week, is ramping up its efforts to track, identify and prevent the virus a month earlier than usual in light of last year's outbreak, said Richard Milam, environmental health specialist with the city of McKinney.
One of the theories as to why North Texas was hit so hard by the virus last year has to do with the combination of bird migration and an unusually wet winter that dried out in the spring time, leaving pockets of standing water for mosquitos to breed in, Milam said.
"It didn't seem to be as wet [this past winter,]" he said. "The best thing we can do is prepare for the worst case scenario; who knows what the summer is going to bring."
Staff members from the city of Plano's health department will discuss their mitigation program and preparations, which they have been working on since last season, at the City Council meeting on Monday. The program is based on an increased emphasis on monitoring, prevention and spraying methods.
The city will also host a mosquito awareness seminar from 2 to 3 p.m. April 11 at City Hall to share prevention tips with the public.
"The virus is present, we've known that, and it's been present in North Texas for 10 years now," said Geoffrey Heinecke, the city's environmental health manager. "But the last two or three years preceding last year it had been really negligible in terms of its presence in the area. All that kind of got us caught off guard [which is why] we responded in the ways that we did."
Because studies suggest the majority of West Nile-carrying mosquitos are found in backyards, Heinecke said the city is honing in on its resident population to help by reporting dead birds and learning about what they can do to keep their yards and neighborhoods virus-free.
"The biggest point we want to get across is that we're really going to be engaging our citizens more so this year and earlier in season, and pushing out education [to] let them know what we're doing," he said. "We need to get our citizens to understand the key role they have in the mosquito management program."
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