News
Dengue Fever Back in the United States
This is a surprising article, but it shouldn’t be a shock to anyone who has experienced being eaten alive by mosquitoes in the South and East Coast in the past few years. State and Federal efforts to conduct aerial spraying have been virtually eliminated over the past few decades. Given unscientific objections to spraying and tight budgets, it will take time to get back to widespread use of aerial spraying to control insect disease vectors.
Decades ago aerial spraying in Air Tractor aircraft helped eradicate malaria from the United States. Today, precision GPS spray technology, ultra-fine mist nozzles with variable flow control and new “green” pesticides enable a single Air Tractor to cover thousands of acres per day with environmentally friendly chemicals that are delivered at such low rates that they are not even visible when sprayed.
Hopefully we will return to aerial spraying of mosquitoes before dengue and malaria come back to the U.S. in epidemic rates.
More than 1,000 exposed to dengue in Florida: CDC
WASHINGTON | Tue Jul 13, 2010 5:14pm EDTWASHINGTON (Reuters) – Five percent of the population of Key West, Florida — more than 1,000 people — have been infected at some point with the dengue virus, government researchers reported on Tuesday.
Most probably did not even know it, but the findings show the sometimes deadly infection is making its way north into the United States, the researchers said.
