Debate Rages On West Nile Virus Strategy

Immediate destruction of hibernating mosquitoes deep in their underground lairs in Queens and elsewhere in the city was proposed last week by Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, the chairman of the state legislature’s environmental conservation committee, at a hearing at City Hall.
The plan was put forward to head off a resurgence next spring of the encephalitis outbreak that led to a controversial aerial and ground spraying of the pesticide malathion.
City and state health authorities testified that they wanted to put into place aerial mapping of the hidden mosquito sites and other forms of surveillance.
Brodsky challenged that approach at a hearing at the City Council chamber on Dec. 17.
He called for immediate action to kill the mosquitoes and the larvae before the city faces another outbreak of the West Nile virus. Brodsky said the program should be initiated in mid-January, with primary emphasis on the northeast Queens "hot zone," where the outbreak was first spotted by public health officials.
"We’re already very late," Brodsky said. "We should have mapped the mosquito sites earlier including subways, sewers, the bottom of elevator shafts and other locations where they are hibernating."
Brodsky questioned the city health department’s plan to map the underground haunts of the hibernating insects only from the air. He called for ground surveillance as well.
The legislator ruled out the use of insecticides such as the malathion sprayed by trucks and helicopters last Labor Day weekend.
"Spraying is the least desirable alternative," he said.
In opening the session, Brodsky said, "Last summer a deadly virus hit New York City, but there are no preparations in the works to prevent future outbreaks. We are here to make sure we understand the causes of last summer’s outbreak and to explore the most effective strategies to protect our families from this deadly disease."
Dr. Marcella Layton, assistant commissioner for the bureau of communicable diseases, said that officials were successful in stopping the further spread of the disease. "But we cannot relax our vigilance," she said. "We will continue to work toward ways to enhance our viral-disease surveillance system in close collaboration with the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and the New York State Department of Health."
The State Assembly hearing was the second in a week. Earlier, medical experts testified about prospects for a second outbreak next spring. It was sponsored by U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut at a field hearing at Fairfield University.
One specialist, Dr. Durland Fish of Yale’s department of epidemiology and public health, called the introduction of a foreign insect-borne virus, never before seen in the Western Hemisphere, "a public health threat unprecedented in modern times. It is reminiscent of the introduction of yellow fever and bubonic plague in past centuries."
He made the remarks at both the federal and state hearings last week.
Fish, brushing off the Department’s assurances, told legislators there were three possible scenarios next summer.
"It could simply disappear and represent a kind of warning from Mother Nature that there is more to come. It could establish itself and repeat the events of last summer. Or, it could explode into a raging epidemic that spreads far beyond the confines of New York and Connecticut."
Fish called for a "preemptive strike on certain mosquito species known to be capable of transmitting the virus and directed at the larval state where environmental impact of insecticide usage would be minimal."
The outbreak of encephalitis over last Labor Day weekend in College Point led to intensive citywide aerial and truck spraying of malathion, an insecticide. The massive bombardment of the insecticide drew sharp criticism from New Yorkers sprayed by helicopters flying low over homes, schools, parks and stores.
The plans proposed by the city and state health departments stress early detection rather than pre-emptive strikes. They propose strengthening the state’s understaffed mosquito-surveillance unit which traps the insects and tests them for dangerous diseases. They also sought more staff for the state laboratory where samples from infected birds and humans are tested.
Fish, a medical entomologist, said that the state is "woefully ill prepared for this epidemic of West Nile virus. We did not even know what virus was causing the epidemic until a month after people had already become ill and some had died. Our lack of preparedness was obvious and costly."
The Yale professor said, "I t is quite likely that the virus carried in millions of mosquitoes will be re-emerging next spring from hibernation in buildings and tunnels in the New York City. Heroic efforts must be made to find the virus in mosquitoes or wildlife and to focus control efforts on containing the virus before humans become infected."