West Nile fears bring push for aerial spraying
Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 29, 2004 12:00 AM
Federal health officials are urging aerial spraying to fight the West Nile virus, which has infected more people in Arizona than in all other states combined this year.
The suggestion by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to dump pesticide over populated areas at night to kill mosquitoes is being considered at a meeting today between two Maricopa County departments: one that deals with environmental services, the other that oversees public health.
If approved, the proposal would be forwarded to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors for final sign-off.
The West Nile virus has infected 163 Arizonans and killed two as of Monday. Updated numbers will be released today.
West Nile was reported in the state for the first time in 2003. The second year of a West Nile epidemic is typically the worst.
Details about the plan were sketchy, primarily because the plan is so tentative.
In the Valley this year, West Nile infections began as a northwest Valley and central Phoenix phenomenon. Cases since have been reported throughout the county.
Local health officials are considering asking for about $1.5 million to spray 1.2 million acres with a pesticide known as a synthetic pyrethroid, which is derived from chrysanthemum bushes.
Aerial spraying to fight mosquitoes would mark a first for the Valley. But officials say it has always been an option in the county's long-term strategy to fight the virus.
The CDC has been recommending for the past week that county officials stage an aerial attack on mosquitoes to curb the epidemic.
The federal agency sent a letter Wednesday to the Arizona Department of Health Services stating that ground-based fogging "will not be adequate" to stop the epidemic.
"Since time is of the essence, we encourage you to implement an aerial pesticide-delivery program," according to the letter from John Roehrig, chief of the arboviral diseases branch at the CDC.
Aerial spraying has been used across the country since the virus was first detected in New York in 1999. But it is often unpopular with the general public.
Jonathan Weisbuch, director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said that he expects it to be controversial in the Valley, too, but that officials would notify residents before spraying an area.
"It's really something we like to avoid, but we may be squeezed into a corner by the mosquitoes that we cannot extricate ourselves except by air," he said.
County health officials currently use larvacide to treat standing water where mosquitoes breed. They also have been doing ground-based fogging using a fleet of 13 trucks that spray the same pesticide at night and in early morning hours while most residents sleep.
John Townsend, vector-control manager for the Maricopa County Environmental Services Department, said although it's expensive, aerial fogging could be the best tactic for stopping the virus, which is transmitted by infected mosquitoes that bite horses and humans.
Townsend estimated the department has used trucks to spray about 120,000 acres since the outbreak began two months ago.
"The reason they're talking about going to aerial fogging, they're talking about a million acres and doing it fast. For me, to do 1 million acres, it would take months," Townsend said.
Although he supports the idea of aerial spraying, Townsend said he understands that the move would be controversial.
"It's always something that gets people going," he said. "People don't seem to mind as much the ground fogging, but whenever you start flying airplanes and stuff over the top of the city, it can get people upset."
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