"Disorganized Mosquito Control Will Make U.S. Vulnerable to Zika"

The efforts of more than 700 mosquito-abatement districts in the U.S. are inconsistent, uncoordinated, and often poorly funded -- and that will make it hard to fight mosquito-borne diseases like Zika virus.

"As Zika virus advances in Central and South America, and more US residents (almost 150 so far) return from the area with infections, public health officials are braced for the next likely step: the moment when Zika passes from a traveler bearing the virus in his or her blood, to a local mosquito, and then to another person. That viral traffic has the potential to ignite Zika outbreaks in the United States in the areas where the mosquito species which carry it already flourish, across the South, in the Mid-Atlantic states and as far north as Des Moines, Cleveland and New York.

And though no one is yet talking about it publicly, that presents an enormous problem. In the United States, mosquito control — the tracking, spraying and surveillance that, in the absence of a vaccine, provides the best defense — is conducted by a crazy quilt of local districts that are dependent on cities and counties for funding and personnel. Some belong to local health departments, and others to departments of agriculture, transportation, or parks and recreation; almost none of them answer to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal agency that directs US response to new disease threats.

When Zika arrives, that unorganized patchwork could leave the United States vulnerable to a rapidly expanding epidemic. The time that it would take to reorganize mosquito control into a coordinated system may already be running out."

Maryn McKenna reports for National Geographic February 29, 2016.

SEE ALSO:

"Zika Is Expected To Infect 1 In 5 Puerto Ricans, Raising Threat To Rest Of U.S." (Washington Post)

"New Study Links Zika Virus to Temporary Paralysis" (New York Times)