- MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida
has extended an alert for West Nile encephalitis to almost 75 percent of
the state, but limits on insecticide-spraying flights after the attacks
on U.S. landmarks have slowed efforts to combat mosquitoes that spread
the disease.
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- The Florida Department of Health has already confirmed
seven human cases of West Nile encephalitis this year.
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- It added 12 counties to its alert area on Thursday after
finding the disease in dead birds in those counties. Among them was
Miami-Dade,
the state's most populous county, with 2.2 million people.
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- Forty-eight of the state's 67 counties are under
advisories
to take precaution against mosquito bites.
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- Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain. The West
Nile variety is caused by a virus common in humans and birds in Africa,
Eastern Europe, West Asia and the Middle East. It was unknown in the
Western
Hemisphere until it was documented in the New York area in 1999.
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- It has killed at least nine people in the New York area
since 1999 and one woman in Georgia in August.
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- West Nile disease usually causes nothing more than fever,
headaches and muscle weakness, but it can kill the elderly, the chronically
ill and those with weak immune systems.
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- So far this year, Florida has confirmed seven human cases
of West Nile and three human cases of Eastern equine encephalitis, a
similar
disease caused by a different mosquito-borne virus.
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- RAINY SEASON HAMPERS
CONTROLS
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- Encephalitis spreads when mosquitoes bite infected birds
and then bite people. Health officials expected West Nile to spread to
Florida as migratory birds headed south for the winter. The autumn
migration
coincides with the peak of the Florida rainy season, when mosquitoes
proliferate.
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- After four years of drought, when puddles that serve
as mosquito nurseries were scarce, Florida has been hit with tropical
storms,
releasing a flurry of "pent-up reproductive potential,'' as one state
official put it.
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- "We've definitely had an exceptional year in terms
of numbers of mosquitoes, and in terms of virus transmission going on,''
Steve Dwinell, assistant director of the state agriculture division that
regulates mosquito control.
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- Small rural counties that lack mosquito-control programs
and those whose traps snag more than 75 mosquitoes a night can get
emergency
spraying help from the state, Dwinell said.
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- "We've had trap counts as high as 2,000 and the
highest is over 3,000. We obviously have a problem,'' he said.
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- State planes have already sprayed more than 3 million
acres (1.2 million hectares), he said.
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- But new flight restrictions following the Sept. 11
hijacked
plane attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania have slowed
anti-mosquito
spraying. The United States closed its airspace for two days immediately
after the attacks then grounded all crop-dusters, including insecticide
planes, for several days due to security concerns.
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- Small planes are still barred from flying near busy
commercial
airports in Miami, Orlando and Tampa. That has forced mosquito-control
workers to use slower and more costly ground spraying, Dwinell said.
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- Health officials have urged those in the warning areas
to avoid outdoor activities at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most
active,
wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts, use mosquito repellent and
eliminate
stagnant water in receptacles where mosquitoes breed.
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- They also urged people to alert county health departments
when they find newly dead birds with no obvious signs of trauma, so the
birds can be tested for encephalitis-causing viruses.
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