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RISK OF MOSQUITO-BORNE DISEASE IN
COSTAL MISSISSIPPI IN THE WAKE OF HURRICANE KATRINA
Research by Dr. Ivo M. Foppa
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
The problems on the Gulf Coast region are far from
over. There are still many potential risks as the
rebuilding process continues. One of those risks is a
massive mosquito bloom in the wake of the flooding and
infrastructure failure Hurricane Katrina caused. Such a
mosquito bloom would result in an increased risk of
mosquito-transmitted illnesses.
One month after Hurricane Katrina, University of South
Carolina researchers set out to assess populations of
mosquito species in Southern Mississippi that could
impact public health. They placed a special focus on
Culex quinquefasciatus (West Nile virus), Aedes aegypti
(dengue, yellow fever), and Cx. nigripalpus (St. Louis
encephalitis).
The researchers’ main goal was to determine whether
evidence of increased risk for mosquito-borne diseases
could be identified. They also wanted to document the
species composition and abundance of the mosquito fauna
after a major Gulf Coast hurricane. Through their
studies, the researchers gained valuable insights about
the effects of major disasters on the risk of
mosquito-borne epidemics and its public health
implications.
USC researchers collected more than 8,000 mosquitoes
during three trapping nights. Most of them were
collected using carbon dioxide-baited light traps. One
initial discovery was that traps furnished with
ultraviolet light attracted far more mosquitoes than
traps equipped with incandescent light. All in all,
researchers collected mosquitoes from at least 21
species, with St. Louis
 encephalitis
accounting for almost three quarters of all mosquitoes.
The West Nile virus vector made up about 10 percent of
the collection, making it the second most dominant in
the study.
Although there was anecdotal evidence that biting stable
flies were greater nuisances than mosquitoes, USC
researchers did not find evidence of infection with
arboviruses in any of the 183 pools. What’s more, USC
research results do not support the notion that
hurricanes and similar natural disasters immediately
increase the risk of mosquito-borne diseases. This might
help to allocate scarce resources to more imminent
health problems. USC researchers have prepared two
manuscripts describing their findings.
Biography
Dr. Ivo M. Foppa assistant professor in the
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics of the
Arnold School of Public Health, University of South
Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina. He received his
D.Sc. in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public
Health in 2001, and his doctorate in medicine (Dr. med)
and medical degree (M.D. equivalent) from the University
of Bern, Switzerland, in 1987 and 1991, respectively.
His research primarily deals with questions of
transmission dynamics of vector-borne diseases, such as
West Nile virus and tick-borne encephalitis
Research Team/Collaborators:
William Wills, adjunct faculty in the USC Department
of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, was the main
entomologist for this project. He has had long-standing
international experience with mosquito surveillance and
control and has established the current mosquito
surveillance at South Carolina Department of Health and
Environmental Control (SCDHEC). Dr. Chris Evans, head of
Medical Entomology at SCDHEC, helped USC researchers
identify mosquitoes and coordinated the processing of
mosquito pools for arbovirus diagnostics. Dr. Art
Wozniak, chief of the Bureau of Laboratories at SCDHEC,
provided all the necessary resources for the arbovirus
diagnostic. |
