Blog 1, West Nile Deaths Rise

        Currently the south has to deal with a reported numbers of deaths and infections from the West Nile Virus. States such as Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi are dealing with mosquito related deaths and they are continuing to rise. However, federal officials do not think that Hurricane Isaac will make things worse. There has been a reported of 1590 cases of the virus nationwide, and 41 deaths have been reported to the agency within the last week. “These hurricanes and flood events tend to disrupt the entire ecology of the area, and thus interrupt this natural transmission cycle between birds and mosquitoes” Dr. Peterson said. Mosquitoes get the West Nile Virus when they feed on infected birds.
     Since everyone is worried about the West Nile Virus, looking back in time after Hurricane Katrina hit, there was a small increase in the of West Nile cases reported in some areas of Louisiana, and there is the same fear that will happen with Hurricane Isaac. So in order to prevent that, Texas Department of State Health Services is having an aerial spray operation in Dallas County aimed at reducing the mosquito population for their area. I hope that Isaac does not create the same damage as Katrina did and, the West Nile Outbreak will not increase the death rates. Oh, if Isaac does happen I hope FEMA is prepared, because they messed up big time when it came to Katrina. But regardless, the West Nile Mosquito Outbreak, should be handle, even though federal and state health officials said it was unclear what had caused the outbreak in the first place.

-Alexa Florencio-Picazo
8/31/12
2:20 pm

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/30/us/west-nile-deaths-rise-but-isaac-unlikely-to-add-to-peril.html?_r=1&ref=health