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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).
They are all off changing their PSN passwords
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.
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.
Is is that you didn't look or just aren't willing to?
CBS News
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.
Uh, no we're not. The liberals you speak of are mostly California refugees that are fleeing the product of the choices they've made, laws and regulations they've mandated and politicians they've voted in. They're broke and it's their fault, but they'll never understand nor admit that it's the result of the choices they've made. Now they're spreading and they're going to fuck the rest of us the way they've fucked themselves.
Unlikely ;)
For most, they won't even know they are exposed. This is a lot like SARS in that respect. It only severely effects about 1% of those infected. About 20% get mild symptoms, headaches, etc.
It does adversely affect those with compromised immune systems though (the elderly, immunocompromised, etc).
30% concentration of DEET is recommended for adults. Certainly NOT 90%.
10% DEET concentration for children.
The concentrations the poster above is suggesting would be toxic.
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?
The concentrations you are suggesting would be worthless. I have tried both and only the concentrations that can only be applied to clothes and not skin seem to keep the bastards away.
I suggest we start fighting fire with fire, lets create some diseases that kill mosquitos.
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.
Actually, the reason California has its debt load is because of following a Conservative anti-tax policy. That, and their electricity deregulation which gave boatloads of money to companies like Enron all in the name of a free market.
You'll never understand nor admit that it's the right-wing policies that harmed California, nor that the fix is relatively simple.
BTW, if California is broke, then so is Texas. They both have huge debt loads.
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
The concentrations you are suggesting would be worthless.
I can only relate to my experience, but I agree — when I was in the jungle/rainforest part of Sabah, Borneo, we attempted to use DEET to keep the mosquitos from landing on us. The stuff from camping stores seemed to attract, rather than repel them — even going up to as higher percentage as we had with us (around 90%, from memory), and it was not much use, even when applied directly to the (small areas) of exposed skin.
Covering up as much skin as possible, and hoping that the mosquitos found others in the group more attractive, were pretty much the only successful approaches.
Severe West Nile is treated with supportive care. It makes a tremendous difference to survival rates and, since you're hospitalized, potentially for quite a while, it's probably fairly expensive in the US.
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.
That post was not insightful. deserves -1 ignorant.
So you are saying we shouldn't worry about it until thousands die?
How about you let the smart people handles and you just worry about getting your ticket to the 'B' ark.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
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.
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.
Look here:
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/consultations/deet/guidelines.html
Studies have also shown that anything above 50% provided no additional protection (but did provider longer protection). In other words, it was no more effective, but lasted longer.
http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/toolkit/DEET.pdf
Uhh... look at Arizona too, so broke they sold their capital building and they are about as conservative as you get. The whole argument is just stupid, the most prosperous states in the union were always left leaning. Oil put Texas and Alaska in a status of their own. Of course that's still no reason to base a decision. Instead you have to look at the retarded methods used to deal with a budget issue. Until the Bush tax cuts, revenue was looking pretty good, we were on track to be debt free. Now you see people arguing to continue tax cuts and cut spending which millions are relying on during an economic down turn.
Of course the conservative agenda says personal responsibility and blah blah, really not a bad ideal for an individual to live by but insane to expect everybody to follow. So casting all those people with medical bills to the wolves and depressing already low-income people is supposed to lead to what? More jobs? Why would a corporation hire more people if their wasn't demand for more product? That's why I can't stand hearing about tax rates and jobs in the same sentence. There is a level of taxation that is burdensome but we're no where even close to it.
Last I checked too, California was still the best place to get venture capital, I wonder why?
We already spray via truck. It's been happening for years. The aerial spraying is using the same chemical, only it's oil based instead of water based. It's called Duet. Here's a KERA article about it, but I don't have any better sources on the chemical.
http://keranews.org/post/company-tries-reassure-residents-about-aerial-spraying
Where genius and insanity become confused true wisdom is found
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.
Pft. You've never been to Canada I take it. Here in Canada, black flies are the size of small dogs, and will carry of small children to use for their meals. And mosquito's are about half as big. If you get up near Algonquin National Park, sometimes you can hear the screams of deer, and moose. That's the sound of the mosquito's sucking them dry in one go.
Om, nomnomnom...