The Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus mosquito - one of the mosquitoes responsible for the transmission of West Nile virus. (Photo courtesy of the USGS.)
With the return of West Nile virus season, communities around the Great Lakes region are debating the health risks of spraying pesticides to kill adult mosquitoes. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Schaefer reports:
Transcript
With the return of West Nile virus season, communities around the Great Lakes region
are debating the health risks of spraying pesticides to kill adult mosquitoes. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Schaefer reports:
Last year more than 170 people in Great Lakes states died after contracting West Nile
virus. Many health districts, citing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control, are
spraying pesticides in the hope of reducing the number of infected mosquitoes. But many
residents are worried about the health risks of pesticide sprays. CDC director Dr. Julie
Gerberding says there’s not enough scientific evidence to show that spraying reduces
human West Nile cases.
“The evidence that adulticide pesticides will reduce mosquitoes in a given geographic
area is pretty strong. The question is whether
or not that results in a reduction in disease transmission to people.”
Dr. Gerberding says her agency considers spraying a last resort. She says a better way to
reduce West Nile infection is to use more benign chemicals that kill mosquito larvae
before they hatch.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Karen Schaefer.