Over the past year, six deaths in Los Angeles have been reported to be related to West Nile Virus and three were confirmed within just the last week. The virus has been present in the area for many years but has recently seemed to spiked in its prevalence. Officials over the past couple of days have tried to brainstorm ways to better educate the population about mosquito control. Possible outreach programs include door-to-door education about wearing long sleeved clothing, using bug spray, and removing standing water. Even a rap video has been made! (See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3hh1Yyyuhw).
Despite all of these efforts, it appears that the people of California do not seem to be very concerned about West Nile Virus because they believe it isn't deadly. For, it has been reported that about 8 of 10 infected people will experience no symptoms. Additionally, with the recent focus on Zika virus, Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, the deputy chief of the Los Angeles count's program for acute communicable disease control, explains how "Certainly we all care about infants and birth defects, so Zika gets a lot of attention. But West Nile causes more deaths than Zika does -- and it causes them every year."
In an effort to try and target populations that are at heightened risk of mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus, officials have started to test chickens for signs of the virus' antibodies. Because chickens don't get sick from the virus, they are a great sample population to track the spread over a long time period. The goal of this program is to better understand which areas of Los Angeles contain high concentrations of mosquitoes carrying West Nile Virus and then target these populations extensively to control the spread of the virus and prevent it from being transmitted to humans. Let's hope the chickens pull through!
Source: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/deadly-west-nile-virus-cases-spiking-la-first-line-defense-chickens/
-Alexandra Ulmer
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