Local mosquito control programs important to public health

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

scottw@standard-democrat.com

SIKESTON -- Center for Disease Control officials recommend supporting local community mosquito control programs. Your health may depend on it.

According to the CDC, mosquito bites are more than just an itchy annoyance but can cause serious diseases, the most notable being the West Nile virus.

Since 1999, almost 40,000 people in the U.S. have been reported with West Nile virus disease, according to the CDC. Of those, more than 1,600 have died and over 17,000 have been seriously ill. These figures do not account for the number of cases not reported to the CDC.

Sikeston's mosquito control program has been up and running, according to Brian Dial, street division supervisor for Sikeston's public works department,

"We've been fogging for about seven weeks, three nights a week," Dial said. "We also pretreated all the ditches and pond areas in the city. We did that in the first part of April. We will do it again the first of August."

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