August 31, 2024 • 22 mins
Late summer is a great time to enjoy an evening walk on the beach, a campfire after dinner, Friday Night Lights, or grilling on the back porch. Unfortunately, mosquitoes and the viruses some of them are carrying are making it a lot harder to enjoy those simple pleasures these days. West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis have been in the headlines lately, and Nichole talks with Massachusetts State Epidemiologist Dr. Catherine Brown to answer some of the big questions surrounding this growing public health problem.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each week we come together right here we talk about
all the topics important to you and the place where
you live. Great to be back with you again on
this Labor Day weekend. I'm Nicole Davis. There really is
nothing quite like a late summer walk to go check
out the sunset on the beach, or grill dinner on
(00:28):
the back porch, late afternoon baseball games, walks to go
get ice cream. All that stuff is great. Unfortunately, these days,
some pesky mosquitoes are making it a lot harder to
enjoy these simple summer pleasures. West Nile and Eastern Equine
encephalitis are two mosquito born viruses, and you might have
noticed them in the headlines lately because many parts of
the region are at high, even sometimes critical risk of contraction.
(00:52):
If you've been listening to the show for a while,
you know here on New England Weekend, I am all
about education, so let's get educated. Doctor Catherine Brown is
our state epidemiologist. She is here to talk about what
exactly these viruses are, how they've become such an issue,
and what can be done to stop them. Doctor. Thank
you so much for being here. Let's start here by
(01:12):
digging into the difference and I guess the similarities as well,
between Eastern Equine encephalitis and West Nile.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Okay, So let's start with the fact that they are
both caused by viruses that occur naturally in certain species
of birds, different species of birds. Westnile virus has some
and tripoli has other ones, and then they are spread
(01:40):
between birds and then also to humans by different species
of mosquito. Okay, So that's that's sort of the similarities, okay,
and then and then we'll start the differences.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
So Westnile virus.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Is a is a virus, a disease that was introduced
into the United States back in nineteen ninety nine, so
we've only had it here for about twenty five years.
It occurs every year across pretty much all of the
United States. It is. It's a very common mosquito born disease.
(02:22):
It tends to occur in urban areas as opposed to
kind of more rural areas, and that's because both the
birds and the species of mosquito that are responsible for
spreading West Nile virus kind of all live in urban
areas together.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Right. The triple E environment.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So TRIPLI is actually a virus that is native to
the United States, so it's been here forever as far
as we know. The first outbreak in Massachusetts that was
known to be caused by TRIPLEI occurred in nineteen thirty
eight and thirty nine, and we've had, you know, different
outbreaks since that time. So, unlike West non virus, Tripoli
(03:07):
does not occur every year. It tends to occur in
these outbreak cycles where we'll have two to three years
of intense activity followed by some number of years of
limited activity, and then it will re emerge the and
so again, unlike westnn virus, this is not so much
(03:30):
an urban issue. It arises from swamp habitats. And unfortunately,
in Massachusetts, particularly in southeastern Massachusetts, we actually have quite
a few swamp habitats.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yes we do.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
This is again a situation where the birds that carry
TRIPLEI and the mosquitoes that spread triply kind of all
live in those shared swamp environments. Okay, one other sort
of compare contrast that I think we want to do
is about the disease that these different viruses causing humans.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
So West nonvirus more common we have.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
More cases of human disease, you know, just generally, but
it's also mostly a less severe disease. So eighty percent
of people, eight out of every ten people bitten by
a mosquito carrying Westnyle virus will never know that happened.
Twenty percent will end up with you know, fever, chills, headaches,
(04:37):
muscle aches. They probably won't feel very well for a
little while, but they'll recover on their own and it'll
be fine. A very small proportion, less than one percent
of folks who are bitten by a Westnile virus infect
a mosquito get a severe disease from it. The virus
invades the central nervous system, the brain and the spinal
(04:58):
cord and can cause image there, and so those are
the individuals who develop severe West Nile virus. They'll often
end up hospitalized, and we do sometimes see fatalities as
a result of that. People who are generally older, we
usually say kind of over the age of sixty, are
(05:21):
more at risk from severe disease from West Nile virus
to tripoli. Now, which is more rare, doesn't happen every year, right,
happens in outbreak cycles. But when it occurs, and when
it infects people, they get seriously ill. This is a
virus that always invades the central nervous system and causes
(05:44):
really significant damage. And so in Massachusetts, between thirty and
fifty percent of people who get tripoli will die from
the disease, and even those who survive a large proportion
a majority of them will be left with some type
of permanent neurologic impairment.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
What can possibly be done to prevent coming down with
something like this? I know that obviously will be of spring.
We'll talk about that in a minute. But if somebody
is listening thinking there are mosquitoes everywhere and I'm going camping,
or if I just want to sit outside in my
backyard and watch the sunset, how am I supposed to
protect myself from this?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, it's a great question.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So I really, when I'm talking about either Westna virus
or triplie, what I'm really trying to balance for people
is this sort of awareness of the fact that, yes,
there is a risk, but these are not diseases that
are common, like say, COVID is common, right, and there
(06:47):
are relatively simple things that people can do that will
help protect them. And so these are basic things like
making sure that you're using a mosquito repellent anytime that
you're outdoors. If the weather is not super hot. You
can use clothing to reduce exposed skin, so long sleeves,
long pants. At the beginning of the season, we always
(07:11):
remind people check your window screens and make sure there's
no holes in them so the mosquitoes don't get inside.
And then also this is particularly important for West Nile
virus and not as much for Triple E. But make
sure that you're looking around your house and yard for
accumulations of standing water, like you know, an empty flower
(07:35):
pot that collects water, and just make sure you dump
those out regularly, because the mosquitoes that spread West Nile
virus are going to breed in those areas, right. But
those are all simple things that really everybody can do
to help reduce their risk. Sure, the one other thing
I'll say before we get to sort of spraying is
(07:58):
that the Department of Public Health works with the local
mosquito control districts. We do a lot of mosquito surveillance
with them, and we use the data that comes from
that from the mosquito trapping and testing to sort of
assign levels of risk to different parts of the state,
and so, you know, another thing that people can do
(08:22):
is pay attention to where the risk is greatest for
these different diseases and be thoughtful about sort of your activities.
If you know you're going to a place where there's
going to be you know, more triple E activity, then
you're really going to want to take the steps to
prevent mosquito bites. And then the one additional thing recommendation
(08:47):
public health recommendation is that for TRIPLI only, we don't
make this recommendation for West Nile, but for triplely only
in places where the risk is greatest, we do w
reckon commend that people consider rescheduling evening outdoor events to
occur during the day. Right, so the mosquitoes that are
(09:08):
most likely to give you triple Y are out and
biting kind of dusk to dawn. And so if you're
you know, if you're doing stuff during the day, you
are less likely to be bitten by a mosquito that's
carrying TRIPLEY. So if you think about this, it's layered
prevention options that you have. So the clothing, the mosquito repellent,
(09:32):
and then you know in certain locations with of high risk,
the staying indoors during evening hours.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
You mentioned those risk levels and how you work with
the mosquito projects to determine how high a risk might
be in a certain set of your town. How do
you specifically do that. I'd love a bit of a
background into the process of Okay, now we're going to
call this town critical. Now we're going to call this
town high. How does that all work?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, so it's it's all based on surveillance data, right,
So the mosquito data is one part of what we do.
So trapping mosquitoes, believe it or not, they actually end
up getting sorted by species and counted by hand. And
the reason we bother to do that is because it
provides information sort of about the relative abundance of different
(10:20):
types of mosquitoes because they're not all involved in spreading
other West nonvirus or tripoli, so we only care about
certain ones anyway, So we get abundance data from that.
We then also do the testing for West now virus
and tripoli and that gives us information sort of about
infection rates in the mosquitoes. So that's a foundation for
(10:44):
our surveillance data. Will also incorporate any evidence during the
current year of human infections or animal infections because for
both West nonvirus and tripoli, and animal infection is sort
of a proxy for humans risk, and so it's important
to include that information. And then we add a whole
(11:06):
bunch of other factors that are a little harder to
sort of specifically define, right, So this is a science
plus an art in doing so. Other factors that we
look at are historic evidence of Tripoli or West non
virus activity, right, Like we know the Greater Boston area
(11:29):
tends to have West naw virus cases. We know that
southeastern Massachusetts tends to have TRIPLEI cases, right, so we'll
use that type of historical information. We also use habitat
information like what type of habitat does that particular area have?
Is it going to be more West Nile, more Triple E.
(11:51):
And we also look at current weather and the weather forecast, right,
is it going to be conducive to mosquito populations and
to people spending time outdoors and potentially being with those mosquitoes.
And we also look at time of season because at
a certain point mosquite it's going to get colder, and
(12:13):
that does a couple of things. One, the mosquitoes are
going to be less active and eventually start to die off,
But it also means people are more likely to be
covered up, and so we generally start to see some
level of risk decreasing kind of in September, starting in
(12:35):
September and then into October.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Okay, Orr, that makes sense. And you know, when it
comes to spraying, somebody asked me recently, why you know
we know this is a cyclical threat in a way,
Tripley comes around every few years. West Nile is here
pretty much every year. Why are we not just proactively
spraying to stop this from becoming as big of a deal.
Why don't we just kind of jump on this in
June and kill the eggs and call it a day.
(12:59):
I'm sure it's not that Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I wish it were that simple, and so okay. So
this is a place where we have to again separate
the viruses, and then we also have to separate the
state into towns that belong to a mosquito control district
and towns that don't. So let's talk about West Nile
virus first. Most of the places in Massachusetts where we
(13:25):
tend to see human cases of West Nile virus.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
We also have.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
The communities are also members of mosquito control districts, and
so those mosquito control districts they have a big job.
They do a lot of different things. They do habitat
mitigation in order to help reduce mosquito breeding areas. They
will do larva siding right usually in catch basins and
(13:55):
storm drains and things like that. So the goal they
are is to kill the the juvenile mosquitos before they
become flying menaces. And then they will also do spraying
truck based spring in order to kill adult infective mosquitoes.
And you know, we tell them when there's a positive result,
(14:16):
and they'll go ahead and they will do whatever the
appropriate response is in that area. Triply remember occurs in
swamp habitats, and so the mosquitoes lay their eggs under
tree roots in these sort of pockets of water under
tree roots in these very dense swamps. And so the
(14:40):
fact is there just isn't a good way to do
larva siding for Triply, unfortunately, but it takes away one
of the tools that we have in southeastern mass which
is a historic area for Triply, a historic hot spot.
They also those also are members of mosquito control districts,
(15:02):
and while they may not be able to do a
ton of larva siding to control the triple E mosquitos,
they can do truck based control efforts. And so again
we tell them about positive findings and they will do
what is possible to reduce adult infected mosquitoes by doing
(15:24):
some spraying. I will say that because southeastern mass also
has a lot of swamps some sort of more green
space that you know, truck based spraying has its limitations
in those environments because they can't get everywhere that the
mosquitoes are.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
But it is those.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Are those are kind of fundamental foundational responses that the
state uses in those communities. The difference for communities that
don't have a mosquito control district is that they are
missing a lot of the benefit that those mosquito controlled
(16:05):
districts include. And that doesn't mean just spraying. It means
education of you know, the citizens, It means all of
the habitat management that they do to help reduce mosquito
breeding sites. It means they don't have the larva siding,
and then it also means of course that they don't
(16:26):
have the adulta siding as well.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
So we do a lot we I'm using the big.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
We, yes, the Royal Way.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yes, we do a lot in Massachusetts to try to
reduce both diseases. But there are limitations to all of
those tools.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah, there's a lot going on, a lot of moving
parts and moving bugs you have to deal with. That's
totally understandable. And you know, right now you're essentially on
the offense at this point in Plymouth and Worcester Counties,
and you're out there and you're trying to you know,
obviously attack these bugs as best you can at this point,
both from the sky end on the ground.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, that's absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
So you know, as I mentioned using southeastern Massachusetts as
one example for they're at increased risk from tripoli. The
mosquito controlled districts in those areas have been doing their
work all season. You know, We've been out there, the
local boards of health have been out there talking about
(17:26):
using mosquito repellents, and you know, personal prevention. All of
that stuff has been happening and is continuing to happen.
The problem is that we continue to have evidence that
risk is ongoing and it's not being successfully mitigated by
even all of those tools that we've thrown at it.
And so in that particular situation when we're doing all
(17:51):
the things and it's still risk is building, then we
talked to mosquito control experts and you know, they kind
of help us decide whether there is a need for
additional interventions. And in southeastern Massachusetts, you know, that was
an aerial spray this year. It's you know, sort of
(18:14):
the last tool in the toolbox. It does not solve
the problem. It is just another tool in the toolbox,
but at some points during the years it has been
proven to reduce the population of you know, problematic mosquitoes
in southern Worcester County. So most of the talents in
(18:37):
the area that are increased risk for TRIPLEI, most of
them actually are not members of a mosquito control district
and so they have not had again, as I mentioned before,
not had the benefit of most of those some of
those really fundamental activities that might have helped reduce risk earlier.
(18:59):
And so we're now in a situation where the risk
got significant enough that there was unfortunately a human case,
and so we're having to provide some of the you know,
the response that a mosquito Control District would have been
doing for them if they were members.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
That is fair, you know, I mean, doctor, I've already
seen comments online from people saying this is excessive. We're
talking about a mosquito. This can't be that big of
a deal. How do you convince people that this is
something to actually take seriously.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah, that's a hard question. So I.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Am just going to say I've been here with the
Department since two thousand and six, so quite a while,
and I've been through several of these triple le cycles,
and you know, I'm not hearing anything really different this
year than what I've heard before.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
These.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
I think these are all, you know, valid concerns. Public
health asks people to think that about a lot of
different issues, and most most of us can't sort of
manage to do all of the right things for everything.
But I think it's really important for us to make
(20:16):
sure that we are helping people know where the information is,
what the correct information is, and giving them lots of
opportunities to sort of access it and absorb it. And
then to a certain extent, people have to make some
individual choices about what they're going to prioritize. But I
(20:38):
need to at least tell them what the facts are
and what I think you know their particular risk is,
and then give them the tools that they need to
help protect themselves and hope that they will choose to
use them.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
The beauty of free will in human nature. Right, There's
only so much you can do. And you know what
about the people who might be immuno compromised who are
listening in those high risk areas the southern Woster County
towns or southeastern mass south Coast, south Shore, who at
this point might be so nervous that they don't want
to leave the house after dusk or something like that.
What do you say to them and how are they
(21:13):
supposed to approach this?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, so that actually, I think is a really important question.
But I think the answer is very similar.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
So, yes, people who are older and those who have
chronic pre existing medical conditions or immunocompromise are at increased
risk from severe disease actually both from westavirus and tripoli.
So I want them to know that. But again, I
(21:42):
want them to understand that, and I want them to
know that there are things that they can do to
help protect themselves, and also that we're out there. You know,
the State is out there working to help protect them
as well. And so I don't actually advise that people
be so paranoid or so scared about these diseases that
(22:04):
they don't go for a walk and get the exercise
they need that's good for their cardiovascular system. As an example, right,
I'm just saying, use mosquito repellent while you do it.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
This has been really helpful information. Thank you for taking
the time to kind of help parse this down into
layman's terms. There's just a lot going on, a lot
of headlines about these mosquito born viruses, and I appreciate
your expertise and all this.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Wow, No, I really appreciate you reaching out about this.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each week we come together right here we talk about
all the topics important to you and the place where
you live. Great to be back with you again on
this Labor Day weekend. I'm Nicole Davis. There really is
nothing quite like a late summer walk to go check
out the sunset on the beach, or grill dinner on
(00:28):
the back porch, late afternoon baseball games, walks to go
get ice cream. All that stuff is great. Unfortunately, these days,
some pesky mosquitoes are making it a lot harder to
enjoy these simple summer pleasures. West Nile and Eastern Equine
encephalitis are two mosquito born viruses, and you might have
noticed them in the headlines lately because many parts of
the region are at high, even sometimes critical risk of contraction.
(00:52):
If you've been listening to the show for a while,
you know here on New England Weekend, I am all
about education, so let's get educated. Doctor Catherine Brown is
our state epidemiologist. She is here to talk about what
exactly these viruses are, how they've become such an issue,
and what can be done to stop them. Doctor. Thank
you so much for being here. Let's start here by
(01:12):
digging into the difference and I guess the similarities as well,
between Eastern Equine encephalitis and West Nile.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Okay, So let's start with the fact that they are
both caused by viruses that occur naturally in certain species
of birds, different species of birds. Westnile virus has some
and tripoli has other ones, and then they are spread
(01:40):
between birds and then also to humans by different species
of mosquito. Okay, So that's that's sort of the similarities, okay,
and then and then we'll start the differences.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
So Westnile virus.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Is a is a virus, a disease that was introduced
into the United States back in nineteen ninety nine, so
we've only had it here for about twenty five years.
It occurs every year across pretty much all of the
United States. It is. It's a very common mosquito born disease.
(02:22):
It tends to occur in urban areas as opposed to
kind of more rural areas, and that's because both the
birds and the species of mosquito that are responsible for
spreading West Nile virus kind of all live in urban
areas together.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Right. The triple E environment.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
So TRIPLI is actually a virus that is native to
the United States, so it's been here forever as far
as we know. The first outbreak in Massachusetts that was
known to be caused by TRIPLEI occurred in nineteen thirty
eight and thirty nine, and we've had, you know, different
outbreaks since that time. So, unlike West non virus, Tripoli
(03:07):
does not occur every year. It tends to occur in
these outbreak cycles where we'll have two to three years
of intense activity followed by some number of years of
limited activity, and then it will re emerge the and
so again, unlike westnn virus, this is not so much
(03:30):
an urban issue. It arises from swamp habitats. And unfortunately,
in Massachusetts, particularly in southeastern Massachusetts, we actually have quite
a few swamp habitats.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yes we do.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
This is again a situation where the birds that carry
TRIPLEI and the mosquitoes that spread triply kind of all
live in those shared swamp environments. Okay, one other sort
of compare contrast that I think we want to do
is about the disease that these different viruses causing humans.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
So West nonvirus more common we have.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
More cases of human disease, you know, just generally, but
it's also mostly a less severe disease. So eighty percent
of people, eight out of every ten people bitten by
a mosquito carrying Westnyle virus will never know that happened.
Twenty percent will end up with you know, fever, chills, headaches,
(04:37):
muscle aches. They probably won't feel very well for a
little while, but they'll recover on their own and it'll
be fine. A very small proportion, less than one percent
of folks who are bitten by a Westnile virus infect
a mosquito get a severe disease from it. The virus
invades the central nervous system, the brain and the spinal
(04:58):
cord and can cause image there, and so those are
the individuals who develop severe West Nile virus. They'll often
end up hospitalized, and we do sometimes see fatalities as
a result of that. People who are generally older, we
usually say kind of over the age of sixty, are
(05:21):
more at risk from severe disease from West Nile virus
to tripoli. Now, which is more rare, doesn't happen every year, right,
happens in outbreak cycles. But when it occurs, and when
it infects people, they get seriously ill. This is a
virus that always invades the central nervous system and causes
(05:44):
really significant damage. And so in Massachusetts, between thirty and
fifty percent of people who get tripoli will die from
the disease, and even those who survive a large proportion
a majority of them will be left with some type
of permanent neurologic impairment.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
What can possibly be done to prevent coming down with
something like this? I know that obviously will be of spring.
We'll talk about that in a minute. But if somebody
is listening thinking there are mosquitoes everywhere and I'm going camping,
or if I just want to sit outside in my
backyard and watch the sunset, how am I supposed to
protect myself from this?
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, it's a great question.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
So I really, when I'm talking about either Westna virus
or triplie, what I'm really trying to balance for people
is this sort of awareness of the fact that, yes,
there is a risk, but these are not diseases that
are common, like say, COVID is common, right, and there
(06:47):
are relatively simple things that people can do that will
help protect them. And so these are basic things like
making sure that you're using a mosquito repellent anytime that
you're outdoors. If the weather is not super hot. You
can use clothing to reduce exposed skin, so long sleeves,
long pants. At the beginning of the season, we always
(07:11):
remind people check your window screens and make sure there's
no holes in them so the mosquitoes don't get inside.
And then also this is particularly important for West Nile
virus and not as much for Triple E. But make
sure that you're looking around your house and yard for
accumulations of standing water, like you know, an empty flower
(07:35):
pot that collects water, and just make sure you dump
those out regularly, because the mosquitoes that spread West Nile
virus are going to breed in those areas, right. But
those are all simple things that really everybody can do
to help reduce their risk. Sure, the one other thing
I'll say before we get to sort of spraying is
(07:58):
that the Department of Public Health works with the local
mosquito control districts. We do a lot of mosquito surveillance
with them, and we use the data that comes from
that from the mosquito trapping and testing to sort of
assign levels of risk to different parts of the state,
and so, you know, another thing that people can do
(08:22):
is pay attention to where the risk is greatest for
these different diseases and be thoughtful about sort of your activities.
If you know you're going to a place where there's
going to be you know, more triple E activity, then
you're really going to want to take the steps to
prevent mosquito bites. And then the one additional thing recommendation
(08:47):
public health recommendation is that for TRIPLI only, we don't
make this recommendation for West Nile, but for triplely only
in places where the risk is greatest, we do w
reckon commend that people consider rescheduling evening outdoor events to
occur during the day. Right, so the mosquitoes that are
(09:08):
most likely to give you triple Y are out and
biting kind of dusk to dawn. And so if you're
you know, if you're doing stuff during the day, you
are less likely to be bitten by a mosquito that's
carrying TRIPLEY. So if you think about this, it's layered
prevention options that you have. So the clothing, the mosquito repellent,
(09:32):
and then you know in certain locations with of high risk,
the staying indoors during evening hours.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
You mentioned those risk levels and how you work with
the mosquito projects to determine how high a risk might
be in a certain set of your town. How do
you specifically do that. I'd love a bit of a
background into the process of Okay, now we're going to
call this town critical. Now we're going to call this
town high. How does that all work?
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Yeah, so it's it's all based on surveillance data, right,
So the mosquito data is one part of what we do.
So trapping mosquitoes, believe it or not, they actually end
up getting sorted by species and counted by hand. And
the reason we bother to do that is because it
provides information sort of about the relative abundance of different
(10:20):
types of mosquitoes because they're not all involved in spreading
other West nonvirus or tripoli, so we only care about
certain ones anyway, So we get abundance data from that.
We then also do the testing for West now virus
and tripoli and that gives us information sort of about
infection rates in the mosquitoes. So that's a foundation for
(10:44):
our surveillance data. Will also incorporate any evidence during the
current year of human infections or animal infections because for
both West nonvirus and tripoli, and animal infection is sort
of a proxy for humans risk, and so it's important
to include that information. And then we add a whole
(11:06):
bunch of other factors that are a little harder to
sort of specifically define, right, So this is a science
plus an art in doing so. Other factors that we
look at are historic evidence of Tripoli or West non
virus activity, right, Like we know the Greater Boston area
(11:29):
tends to have West naw virus cases. We know that
southeastern Massachusetts tends to have TRIPLEI cases, right, so we'll
use that type of historical information. We also use habitat
information like what type of habitat does that particular area have?
Is it going to be more West Nile, more Triple E.
(11:51):
And we also look at current weather and the weather forecast, right,
is it going to be conducive to mosquito populations and
to people spending time outdoors and potentially being with those mosquitoes.
And we also look at time of season because at
a certain point mosquite it's going to get colder, and
(12:13):
that does a couple of things. One, the mosquitoes are
going to be less active and eventually start to die off,
But it also means people are more likely to be
covered up, and so we generally start to see some
level of risk decreasing kind of in September, starting in
(12:35):
September and then into October.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Okay, Orr, that makes sense. And you know, when it
comes to spraying, somebody asked me recently, why you know
we know this is a cyclical threat in a way,
Tripley comes around every few years. West Nile is here
pretty much every year. Why are we not just proactively
spraying to stop this from becoming as big of a deal.
Why don't we just kind of jump on this in
June and kill the eggs and call it a day.
(12:59):
I'm sure it's not that Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I wish it were that simple, and so okay. So
this is a place where we have to again separate
the viruses, and then we also have to separate the
state into towns that belong to a mosquito control district
and towns that don't. So let's talk about West Nile
virus first. Most of the places in Massachusetts where we
(13:25):
tend to see human cases of West Nile virus.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
We also have.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
The communities are also members of mosquito control districts, and
so those mosquito control districts they have a big job.
They do a lot of different things. They do habitat
mitigation in order to help reduce mosquito breeding areas. They
will do larva siding right usually in catch basins and
(13:55):
storm drains and things like that. So the goal they
are is to kill the the juvenile mosquitos before they
become flying menaces. And then they will also do spraying
truck based spring in order to kill adult infective mosquitoes.
And you know, we tell them when there's a positive result,
(14:16):
and they'll go ahead and they will do whatever the
appropriate response is in that area. Triply remember occurs in
swamp habitats, and so the mosquitoes lay their eggs under
tree roots in these sort of pockets of water under
tree roots in these very dense swamps. And so the
(14:40):
fact is there just isn't a good way to do
larva siding for Triply, unfortunately, but it takes away one
of the tools that we have in southeastern mass which
is a historic area for Triply, a historic hot spot.
They also those also are members of mosquito control districts,
(15:02):
and while they may not be able to do a
ton of larva siding to control the triple E mosquitos,
they can do truck based control efforts. And so again
we tell them about positive findings and they will do
what is possible to reduce adult infected mosquitoes by doing
(15:24):
some spraying. I will say that because southeastern mass also
has a lot of swamps some sort of more green
space that you know, truck based spraying has its limitations
in those environments because they can't get everywhere that the
mosquitoes are.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
But it is those.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Are those are kind of fundamental foundational responses that the
state uses in those communities. The difference for communities that
don't have a mosquito control district is that they are
missing a lot of the benefit that those mosquito controlled
(16:05):
districts include. And that doesn't mean just spraying. It means
education of you know, the citizens, It means all of
the habitat management that they do to help reduce mosquito
breeding sites. It means they don't have the larva siding,
and then it also means of course that they don't
(16:26):
have the adulta siding as well.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
So we do a lot we I'm using the big.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
We, yes, the Royal Way.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Yes, we do a lot in Massachusetts to try to
reduce both diseases. But there are limitations to all of
those tools.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah, there's a lot going on, a lot of moving
parts and moving bugs you have to deal with. That's
totally understandable. And you know, right now you're essentially on
the offense at this point in Plymouth and Worcester Counties,
and you're out there and you're trying to you know,
obviously attack these bugs as best you can at this point,
both from the sky end on the ground.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Yeah, that's absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
So you know, as I mentioned using southeastern Massachusetts as
one example for they're at increased risk from tripoli. The
mosquito controlled districts in those areas have been doing their
work all season. You know, We've been out there, the
local boards of health have been out there talking about
(17:26):
using mosquito repellents, and you know, personal prevention. All of
that stuff has been happening and is continuing to happen.
The problem is that we continue to have evidence that
risk is ongoing and it's not being successfully mitigated by
even all of those tools that we've thrown at it.
And so in that particular situation when we're doing all
(17:51):
the things and it's still risk is building, then we
talked to mosquito control experts and you know, they kind
of help us decide whether there is a need for
additional interventions. And in southeastern Massachusetts, you know, that was
an aerial spray this year. It's you know, sort of
(18:14):
the last tool in the toolbox. It does not solve
the problem. It is just another tool in the toolbox,
but at some points during the years it has been
proven to reduce the population of you know, problematic mosquitoes
in southern Worcester County. So most of the talents in
(18:37):
the area that are increased risk for TRIPLEI, most of
them actually are not members of a mosquito control district
and so they have not had again, as I mentioned before,
not had the benefit of most of those some of
those really fundamental activities that might have helped reduce risk earlier.
(18:59):
And so we're now in a situation where the risk
got significant enough that there was unfortunately a human case,
and so we're having to provide some of the you know,
the response that a mosquito Control District would have been
doing for them if they were members.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
That is fair, you know, I mean, doctor, I've already
seen comments online from people saying this is excessive. We're
talking about a mosquito. This can't be that big of
a deal. How do you convince people that this is
something to actually take seriously.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah, that's a hard question. So I.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Am just going to say I've been here with the
Department since two thousand and six, so quite a while,
and I've been through several of these triple le cycles,
and you know, I'm not hearing anything really different this
year than what I've heard before.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
These.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
I think these are all, you know, valid concerns. Public
health asks people to think that about a lot of
different issues, and most most of us can't sort of
manage to do all of the right things for everything.
But I think it's really important for us to make
(20:16):
sure that we are helping people know where the information is,
what the correct information is, and giving them lots of
opportunities to sort of access it and absorb it. And
then to a certain extent, people have to make some
individual choices about what they're going to prioritize. But I
(20:38):
need to at least tell them what the facts are
and what I think you know their particular risk is,
and then give them the tools that they need to
help protect themselves and hope that they will choose to
use them.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
The beauty of free will in human nature. Right, There's
only so much you can do. And you know what
about the people who might be immuno compromised who are
listening in those high risk areas the southern Woster County
towns or southeastern mass south Coast, south Shore, who at
this point might be so nervous that they don't want
to leave the house after dusk or something like that.
What do you say to them and how are they
(21:13):
supposed to approach this?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, so that actually, I think is a really important question.
But I think the answer is very similar.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
So, yes, people who are older and those who have
chronic pre existing medical conditions or immunocompromise are at increased
risk from severe disease actually both from westavirus and tripoli.
So I want them to know that. But again, I
(21:42):
want them to understand that, and I want them to
know that there are things that they can do to
help protect themselves, and also that we're out there. You know,
the State is out there working to help protect them
as well. And so I don't actually advise that people
be so paranoid or so scared about these diseases that
(22:04):
they don't go for a walk and get the exercise
they need that's good for their cardiovascular system. As an example, right,
I'm just saying, use mosquito repellent while you do it.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
This has been really helpful information. Thank you for taking
the time to kind of help parse this down into
layman's terms. There's just a lot going on, a lot
of headlines about these mosquito born viruses, and I appreciate
your expertise and all this.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
Wow, No, I really appreciate you reaching out about this.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes present: Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial
Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!