Agency promotes abatement districts

By Ronald Bond - Argus Observer
Monday, September 17, 2007 10:31 AM PDT

Boise - Southwest District Health is focused on ensuring counties in southwestern Idaho are informed about West Nile virus, while at the same time the agency is pursuing practicable mosquito abatement techniques even as it becomes increasingly clear the malady is in the western Treasure Valley to stay.

“In general, (at) the health district, we try to keep our counties informed on surveillance acts such as human cases (and) mosquito pools so the county leadership understands West Nile in their community,” Southwest District Health Director of Environmental Health Services David Loper said. “As the different county commissioners become interested they invite the health district to speak at their meetings.”

Southwest District Health serves Adams, Canyon, Gem, Owyhee, Payette and Washington counties.

So far, Southwest District Health has spoken at county meetings throughout the district to discuss how abatement programs would help in the prevention of the disease.

“The message we’re trying to provide is West Nile is here,” Loper said. “It’s present in our community. It’s here to stay, (so we’re) encouraging that abatement for public health services. We’ve certainly been educating the county leadership recommending they do that. Obviously the county commissioners definitely have to take in a lot of factors.”

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Canyon County is the only entity in the health district to showcase a complete abatement program, but parts of Gem County and Payette County are covered, and officials in the other three counties are discussing how they will move forward with the process.

The abatement process, Loper said, involves more than just going out and spraying mosquitoes. A big part of reducing the spread of the virus is educating the public.

“Definitely keep in mind we’re encouraging keeping our leaders informed on the abatement process, but there’s nothing that will replace self-awareness,” Loper said.

That doesn’t necessarily mean, though, the abatement programs will eliminate the pests altogether.

“A mosquito control program is never going to eradicate mosquitoes from the area,” Gem County Mosquito Abatement District representative Jason Kinley said. “The goal is to suppress the number of mosquitoes in an area so the numbers are manageable.”

So far this year, the number of human cases of West Nile virus are down compared with 2006. According to Laurie Boston, Public Information Officer for Southwest District Health, the number of cases in the Southwest District in last August stood at 31, with two of those cases being the more dangerous neuroinvasive form of West Nile virus.

Part of the reason for the decrease could be because of some of the mosquito abatement programs that are going up or the public awareness, but Boston added “there are so many variables that can cause the different numbers.”

One of those variables could be traced to the trend of the disease in recent years as it has migrated across the country.

“Originally the train of thought was, as it moved across the country from the East Coast to the West Coast, we would see it enter a community, be there for a few years and leave,” Loper said. “But once it hits, it establishes itself (and then) it wanes ... for several reasons.

“It’s hard to really pin down what’s causing that (decrease). If the question is ‘does abatement help?’ I would say a program does reduce the number (of mosquitoes and cases). There’s a lot of the reasons why the numbers are going down.”

Part of that trend though, Boston said, is sometimes the number of cases will jump one year, decrease for a while then climb again. Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota and Texas are just a few states that are examples of that pattern.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Web site — www.cdc.gov — the states reached extreme levels of West Nile virus in 2003. Texas reported 720 cases that year. South Dakota reported more than 1,000 cases, while Nebraska reported just less than 2,000 and Colorado topped the chart at 2,947 human cases.

Each state saw a major decrease followed by an increase in the following years. South Dakota dropped to just 51 cases in 2004, but climbed to 229 the following year. Nebraska came in with just 53 cases in 2004, but human cases climbed the next two years, reaching as high as 264 last year. Colorado and Texas each dropped below 200 in 2005, but then each jumped back to around 350 in 2006.

Whether or not a similar scenario is imminent for Idaho remains to be seen, but with West Nile seemingly set to hang around for a while, the important factor is knowing the disease is here and staying safe.

“We’re not going to see it go away. Citizens have the ability to protect themselves as much as the abatement programs do,” Kinley said.