News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Connecticut
Department of Public Health
June 8, 2017 Contact: Maura Downes
(860)
509-7270
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
Contact: Philip Armstrong, ScD
(203) 974-8510
State
Mosquito Monitoring Program Begins Testing for Mosquito-borne Viral Diseases
All mosquitoes
collected in state will be tested for West Nile, EEE and Zika viruses
Hartford – The State of Connecticut Mosquito Management
Program (MMP) announced that the seasonal mosquito
trapping and testing program coordinated by the Connecticut Agricultural
Experiment Station (CAES) began on June 5th. The program
monitors the types, numbers and locations of mosquitoes and tests them for the presence
of viruses that can cause illness including West
Nile virus (WNV) and eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEE) and Zika virus. First
test results will be available the week of June 12.
“Connecticut
has a robust statewide mosquito monitoring program that includes traps and
sites selected for each of the mosquito transmitted viruses of public health
concern,” said Dr. Philip Armstrong of The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment
Station. “Historically, WNV infected mosquitoes are identified early to
mid-July each year while EEE is not expected until later in the summer. It is
unlikely that Zika infected mosquitoes will be identified but we will be testing
for it.”
“As we
enjoy the warm summer weather outdoors, it is important to take precautions to
avoid mosquito and tick bites,” said Dr. Raul Pino, Commissioner, Department of
Public Health. “Let’s also remember that currently the threat of Zika virus
infections among Connecticut residents is the result of travel to Zika affected
areas and sexual transmission from infected men to their partners, not from
local mosquito transmission.”
WNV Surveillance
Last season, CAES trapped and tested over 170,000 mosquitoes and identified WNV-positive
mosquitoes collected at trap sites in 20 towns in 4 counties (Fairfield,
Hartford, New Haven and New London) collected July 6 to September 28. The first
were collected in Stamford. The majority of WNV activity was detected in mosquitoes
collected from towns in southwestern Connecticut.
The number of human cases varies
from year to year depending on a variety of environmental factors. Since 2000,
the number of annually acquired infections has ranged from zero in 2004 and
2009 to 21 in 2012; on average there are 6 reported each year. During 2016, one
Connecticut resident was reported with WNV-associated illnesses. The patient,
70-79 and a resident of Milford, was diagnosed with encephalitis and
hospitalized. While WNV infections are not usually fatal, patients with
meningitis or encephalitis may suffer lasting symptoms resulting from
neurological damage.
EEE Surveillance
EEE was identified in one pool of
mosquitoes collected September 12, 2016 in Voluntown. No human or domestic
animal infections were reported. EEE is a rare illness in humans, and only a
few cases are reported in the United States each year, mostly in the Atlantic
and Gulf Coast states. However, it often causes serious neurologic illnesses
and fatalities. A Connecticut resident died of an EEE-associated illness in
2013.
Zika
Surveillance
Zika virus was introduced into the
Western Hemisphere during 2015, spread rapidly in tropical regions of Latin
America, the Caribbean Islands and, in 2016 to Florida and Texas. Zika commonly
causes fever, rash, conjunctivitis or other mild symptoms and rarely a
neurological illness (Guillain-Barré syndrome) among infected people. However,
it can also cause serious birth defects when a woman is infected during
pregnancy. From February, 2016 to May, 2017, 115 Connecticut residents tested
positive for Zika virus infection including 7 pregnant women. All Zika related
infections were associated with travel to affected areas out of the state.
The yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) is the primary mosquito
species involved in the Latin American epidemic and does not occur in Connecticut. Another mosquito species, the Asian
tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus),
may also transmit Zika virus and it has a more temperate distribution in the U.S.
and has been identified in southern Connecticut. Enhanced mosquito surveillance
conducted by the CAES collected 2,221 Aedes
albopictus mosquitoes in 25 trap sites in 18 towns primarily in lower
Fairfield and New Haven counties. No
Zika -positive mosquitoes were identified.
Connecticut Mosquito Management Program
The response to mosquito transmitted diseases in Connecticut
is a collaborative inter-agency
effort involving the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), the Connecticut
Agricultural Experiment Station
(CAES) the Department of Public Health (DPH), the Department of Agriculture and the Department of
Pathobiology at the University of
Connecticut (UCONN). These agencies
are responsible for monitoring mosquito populations and the
potential public health threat of mosquito-borne diseases. The CAES maintains a network of 91 mosquito-trapping
stations in 72 municipalities throughout the state. CAES begins mosquito trapping and testing in June and
continues into October.
For information on
WNV and EEE, what can be done to prevent getting
bitten
by mosquitoes, the latest mosquito test results and human infections,
visit the Connecticut Mosquito Management
Program web site at
www.ct.gov/mosquito.