Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Initiative will target West Nile Virus and Lyme Disease in 2013.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved Tuesday an insect control program designed to fight West Nile Virus and Lyme disease. The 2013 Disease Carrying Insect Program is a series of measures designed to prevent widespread outbreaks of West Nile Virus, Lyme disease and other illnesses in the county. The annual initiative involves monitoring mosquitoes and ticks, surveillance on any human cases in the county, and educating residents on effective prevention. West Nile Virus season runs from May to October, according to officials. During the the 2012 mosquito monitoring period, county health experts trapped and tested more than 64,000 mosquitos in nearly 2,800 groups. Of those groups, 255 tested positive for West Nile Virus. Positive …
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Tuesday vote will authorize program to survey mosquitoes for West Nile Virus, which killed a county resident and affected eight others in 2012.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is expected to approve a series of measures to prevent outbreaks of mosquito-borne West Nile Virus and other illnesses. The measures are part of the 2013 Disease Carrying Insects program. The county’s annual fight against insect-borne disease involves monitoring mosquitoes and ticks, surveillance on any human cases in the county, and educating residents on effective prevention. According to a Fairfax County Department of Health report, more than 5,300 cases of West Nile Virus were reported across the United States in 2012, 243 of the ending in death. In Virginia last year, 29 residents were diagnosed with West Nile, three of whom died. Of the eight cases reported in Fairfax County last year, one …
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Muggy weather brings out more mosquitoes this week.
Mosquitoes are out in force as hot temperatures and muggy weather plague Northern Virginia this week. Pools of water from rainfall the past few days are breeding grounds for mosquitoes. One person in Maryland died from West Nile Virus, officials confirmed last week, in the state's first death from the virus reported this year. Virginia officials report four cases of West Nile Virus in the state, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, including one in Northern Virginia. West Nile Virus cases are up 40 percent nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Mosquitoes get the virus from feeding on infected birds and spread it to people they bite. Symptoms include fever, headache and body aches, and most people get better in a …
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Fairfax County health officials release information about West Nile Virus symptoms and tips to protect yourself from mosquitos.
West Nile virus infections are on the rise with 1,118 cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control so far this year, the highest tally since the virus was first found in the United States in 1999. Virginia's two reported cases, however, pale in comparison to the 298 reported in Texas. There have been no reported infections in Northern Virginia. The CDC reports 75 percent of this year's West Nile infections are from five states - Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Dakota and Oklahoma. So far, 47 states have reported infections and 41 people have died from the virus. West Nile symptoms include: The virus spreads to people, other mammals and birds through mosquito bites. People cannot spread West Nile by touching or kissing an infected…
John Strother
10:23 am on Thursday, February 14, 2013
Lyme disease is spread by infected ticks. Best way to get rid of ticks is to burn the fields that support them. Turn loose chickens and these will eat ticks. However, one can not turn loose live stock, nor can one burn fields. However, without doing so the ticks breed and win. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water, it could be as little as a teaspoon of water. Around all the industrial sites are … more ›