Swat! West Nile virus slowly headed this way

If it takes East Coast fashions three years to make it to the West Coast, apparently it takes five years for some viruses to find their way here.

West Nile virus made its debut in New York in 1999. Since then, it has steadily found its way west. Recent news reports have tracked the flu-like symptom illness to Louisiana, Texas and North Dakota. Local health officials say we could meet those unwelcome mosquitoes in as little as two years. That’s probably of no comfort to people already swatting at the pesky critters. The obnoxious insects were bothersome enough already; now some of them might be deadly. Who is going to look at a mosquito the same way again?

Fortunately, it sounds like we have some time to prepare our homes and neighborhoods. And it’s encouraging to see that state and local officials are developing plans to educate the public and survey birds and insects to determine if they’re carrying the potentially deadly virus.

Stories of the virus taking lives in Louisiana had barely hit the stands before readers were writing to The Herald about their neighborhood’s retention ponds serving as a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Subsequent articles confirmed we aren’t the only ones worried about the problem. Everyone from agriculture officials in Maryland to environmental engineers in Virginia are weighing in on it.

This is no time for a knee-jerk reaction or signing up to play the blame game. Environmentalists have pointed out how retention ponds have been a creative way to help improve water quality, something we all care about. And health officials (and the rest of us, for that matter) have every reason to be concerned about any area that could breed mosquitoes. But we shouldn’t have to sacrifice one for the other.

A study in California revealed that, although even the best design storm ponds had mosquitoes in them, it was largely because they hadn’t been cleaned often enough. That should be a clear sign to us that we need to keep these ponds draining properly so mosquito larvae can’t develop.

And it should give us time to monitor the ponds and continue to study their long-term effects .

Until then, let’s hope that long-sleeve shirts and pants were all the rage in New York last year.

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