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West Nile Virus Outbreak Puts Dallas In State of Emergency
Penurious Penguin writes with news from the BBC that the city of Dallas "is experiencing a widespread outbreak of mosquito-borne West Nile Virus that has caused and appears likely to continue to cause widespread and severe illness and loss of life," and writes that the city "has declared a state of emergency. West Nile virus can be asymptomatic or produce multiple symptoms, but can also lead to fevers, and the potentially fatal meningitis or encephalitis. Birds are the most common carriers and mosquitoes are the vector for human infection."
Buy DEET, 50-90% concentration, apply liberally. The higher concentration stuff is rather strong, but you can spray it on your clothes (ie. Socks, shoes, sleeves).
I guess all the other would-be first posters have died of West Nile.
Isn't it a little pathetic that we're not hearing anything about this from domestic sources?
What... does this affect a corporate sponsor in some negative way?
Rising temperatures, increase drought, more importantly, increased rain and flooding, will all ensure the spread mosquito vectors. I wouldn't be surprised to see one of the newly mutated strains of Malaria to make a resurgence. Par the course, all we can do is adapt to this new life.
Slashdot, Tell me why this is nothing to worry about.
It is in area news, but it hasn't hit the national airwaves yet. However, the local news doesn't describe it as a "state of emergency" like the BBC does. Maybe though they just don't want to get people overly scared. What is happening is pretty much the same as what happened in New York a couple years ago.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
What a hateful, ignorant comment. But then, hatred is always found next to ignorance, so I suppose there is no surprise here.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I live in Dallas. People are not dying in the streets. We are not living out Monty Python's "Bring Out Your Dead" sketch.
The "emergency" was declared primarily so we could gain access to 5 pesticide-spraying planes from the Texas Department of Emergency Management.
Nylon is fine, but it will destroy other stuff. Permethrin should only be sprayed on clothes, but it does a good job too, actually kills the things.
I think we should bring back DDT worldwide, they have lost some of their developed immunities by now. Once they start developing immunities we can start with the organochlorides, then the organophosphates, then the pyrethrins, and by then they should be vulnerable to DDT again. Sure, we won't have any birds or flowering plants, but we can get by on wind pollinated crops. Probably need to devote some extra money to cancer research too.
refactor the law, its bloated, confusing and unmaintainable.
Here in Maine, the Mosquito's will drain your blood long before the West Nile Virus can do any damage. It's been an unusually humid, and wet summer.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
Won't someone think about the poor endangered malaria mosquito? This majestic creature used to roam the plains in the billions, but thanks to eradication efforts and habitat encroachments in now roams the plains in slightly fewer billions! You know what the problem is? It's fair weather environmentalists! Oh sure, it's easy to get behind an endangered animal when it's cute and fuzzy! But they're nowhere to be found when it has six legs, sucks human blood and helps spread a deadly disease! I suppose if another spraying program is enacted, they won't be down at city hall protesting! Won't someone think of the mosquitoes?!
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
What crack have the Dallas County Commissioners been smoking that John Whiley Price has been dealing around the County Courthouse? We've had West Nile outbreaks every year since 2002ish (as I recall) and the city used ground spray trucks previously. We've had approximateley 100 people every year contract the issue and about 20 die from it. I agree with the above comment that the emergency is manufactured, but I suspect it's so that the county can get access to cheaper to purchase pesticides that have a higher chance of side effects.
Those that get infected are already on the watch list for diseases (Young, Old, Immune system compromised). It's quite simple how to avoid it
1. Don't go outside at dawn/dusk
2. Drain standing water pools
3. Wear a decent bug spray.
4. Wear clothing over most parts of your body if you must go outside for extended periods of time
Needless to say that the night when they overfly my neighborhood I'm going to shut all my windows/doors and not think about what's happening outside.
I guess its a good thing that according to a astonishingly big portion of USians think the US dosn't require public gouvernment-funded health care. Guess the free market will take care of this too. ... ...
Just saying.
For the US sake, I hope some hardcore anti-healthcare people get bitten and learn a lesson or two.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
This is a bunch of fearmongering BS. There were dire warnings on national news this morning, too.
So what is the extent of the "widespread outbreak" that is causing all the disease, mayhem and death that "appears likely to continue to cause widespread and severe illness and loss of life"?
Almost 700 cases have been reported across the country
WOW! Almost 700 cases across the country! Just this year! They don't actually say how many in Texas, or Dallas. Does that mean 700 deaths? No. 700 serious illnesses? No. 700 people, though, right? No.
There have been cases of infection reported in people, birds or mosquitoes
Ah. This is cause for a panic and a state of emergency? What for?
The move clears the way for aerial spraying to kill infected mosquitoes that transmit the disease.
Ah - there we go. Hmmm. "Don't worry about the stuff being sprayed out of those planes, citizen. It's for your protection!"
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
I live in an area that has had West Nile since 2002. We are constantly finding dead crows. Even though we have been severely inflicted and were one of the first in Canada to have it, we still only have a handful of cases and only two of those were fatal. There was one old man that died in 2002 and then a second, old lady that died in 2011. That's it for the whole region. About 20% of the people exposed to West Nile virus develop "West Nile fever". West Nile fever's symptoms include headache, body aches and a fever. Not enough to send you to the doctor though, as it only lasts a few days. Also, the end result is you wind up producing antibodies that keep you from getting it again, for the rest of your life. The majority of people exposed to the virus, show no symptoms whatsoever. Of the folks who are exposed, less than 1% suffer from any sort of problems, beyond flu symptoms. West Nile can be fatal in very rare cases but then so can driving a car. It's not the monster killer the press is making it out to be. Don't be fooled.
Get out of the air conditioned cave, during the day, and emptying any standing water of more than 1/4 depth *anywhere* you find it.
Dengay is coming to the US as well. But ignorant dipshit want to stop an effective way of limiting.
http://www.pusware.com/quackcast/quackcast97.mp3
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
We don't have any mosquitoes in Antarctica ;-)
It's not that bad. the disease is mostly affecting people with weakened immune systems, the really young and the really old. This is not too different than the flu in that regard, except it's much more difficult to control the spread of it and it has some really nasty side effects if it goes untreated.
That said, I think treating it like a dire emergency is not the right way to go. I really don't want me or my children breathing in any chemicals unnecessarily. If any of us get sick from the virus, we'll go to our doctors that we trust or a emergency room. With all the pollution we already have on top of allergens, I really don't want to know what adding those chemicals to the mix will do, but there's a chance that it may be even less treatable than the disease.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
It's no state of emergency here, but the city is set to start aerial spraying.
Where genius and insanity become confused true wisdom is found
Dallas is more of a crunchy frog town.
Especially the part where the Inspector says "FUCK your sales, we've got to protect the public!"
I don't want to hear from the Dallas Cowboys that this years season was a wash due to the West Nile Virus......Everyone knows Romo isn't a true quarterback. Anyone who parties with Mr. Belding from Saved By The Bell is not a top notch QB.
There are hundreds of spray planes here in Texas, privately owned, all sitting idle and their owners/pilots are dying for work right now due to the nationwide drought that has killed off most of the farm crops this year and eliminated this season's work for the pilots. One of my best friends owns and flies an Air Tractor and the past two years he's only gotten about half the spraying contracts he normally gets so he's desperate for work so he doesn't have to sell the plane. He's looking into the mosquito spraying contracts, but the state is making it so difficult to get the extra licenses needed for spraying mosquitoes that it seems like they're deliberately protecting someone's monopoly or something.
The only safe place is Madagascar. Trust me, I've tried...
There is an interesting conclusion that can be drawn from this actually. Most of the deaths have occurred near the Park Cities - extremely wealthy parts of town.
They also are known to use more water than else where in the city: 254 gallons per person per day. This leads to lots of runoff and standing water.
Not surprising at all that they have a West Nile problem.
You can try McMurdo station, the whole antartica, maybe artic shelves, some mountain with permanent ice shelves...
Geekoid always supports the side of the authorities, even with their ongoing craptacular track record.
Makes you wonder...
So a few people are getting a mild illness from mosquitoes. Let's spray the entire city with carcinogenic pesticides! See? Now EVERYONE is affected by West Nile!
It's a pretty safe bet that no chemical will ever eliminate the mosquito. As long as there is water on which to lay eggs, and animals with blood for them to eat, there will be mosquitoes. Spraying for them, even if the poisons weren't doing more damage, is at very best an exercise in ignorance-fueled futility.
Oh, that DDT was great stuff, it killed the little buggers, right? Except it destroyed the amphibians and bats that ate the mosquito, too. So the first few years when the spraying stops, there's nothing to keep the mosquito in check. Same thing goes for every insect pest. The chemical "answer" kills the predators too, but the pests bounce back faster.
I'm not a rabid environmentalist. It's a shame that a few old folks with weak immune systems die from West Nile. But that is not a good reason to wage chemical warfare on the public.
That I'm right, and you don't like it, doesn't mean I'm a troll.
... It would take a whole lot of bats to make any appreciable dent in the mosquito population.
On the plus side, though, then we'd have a whole lot of bats!
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
Don't we have a sustained unemployment problem nationwide? ...check! ...check!
Wouldn't it be a burden on taxpayers to have to provide supportive care to people who are just making the unemployment figures high?
Is there a way we can make this West Nile Virus a national epidemic, and maybe increase it's potency? (I kid, I kid!)
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CHEMTRAILS!!
We'll right back, with more Art Bell.
Yep, I figured they would start getting some plagues pretty soon, Next Oklahoma. Thanks for changing the weather with your cload seeding projects. :-)
I figured would eventually they would face some sorta wrath.
Let's ignore the presence of Turtle Creek and other somewhat stagnant bodies of water in the vicinity, or the age of that population compared to the city as a whole. All it takes is a collection of infected vectors in a natural, or semi-natural, body of water, and all that takes is a collection of infected carriers in the trees. Lots of trees in the park cities. Lots of birds. Lots of ponds and creeks. Lots of old people. Maybe Jerry Jones...
How many deaths have their been to justify this "state of emergency"?
Until I see some hard data, I assume this is more alarmist BS.
I would wonder if this is part of a larger conspiracy to wipe out the large concentration of Agile 2012 Conference attendees who stormed the city this week.
One Hundred Forty Fifth Post!
You should probably let the CDC know that...
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/qa/insect_repellent.htm
More specific info on DEET concenctration can be found at:
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/health/mosquitoes/ai_insectrp.htm
where it says: "Formulations registered for direct application to human skin contain from 4 to 100 percent DEET."
DDT it is good for you and it is good for me!
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I've seen this so many times it amazes me. Think you have a lot of mosquitoes on your property? I bet you have a lot of stagnant water pools. No, it isn't your neighbors pond because if they have fish, they're eating the pupa. Most likely, it is that bird bath or that wheelbarrow or that childrens see-saw with the foot wells that collect rain water or, as I see almost all the time, that tarp you have over your firewood that has ever so small puddles of water (like half a cup). Those little wiggling specs of dirt? You better believe they're flying tonight!
</public-service-announcement>
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...