- CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago
will step up its fight against the West Nile virus this weekend by spraying
for mosquitoes with airborne insecticide for the first time in 27 years,
city health officials said this week.
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- Eighteen trucks beginning at dusk on Sunday will begin
traversing Chicago streets and alleys and where city health workers have
identified clusters of human West Nile cases.
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- The city health department said crews from a private
firm will spray an insecticide called Anvil over the course of two nights.
The city said residents should stay indoors and close their windows while
spraying is under way.
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- The Illinois Department of Public Health on Friday reported
seven new nonfatal human cases of West Nile, all from suburbs surrounding
Chicago. There have been 49 cases within the city.
-
- West Nile, transmitted through mosquito bites, has been
blamed for at least 43 deaths in 14 U.S. states this year. Illinois has
reported the most human cases, with 224, and the second-most fatalities,
with nine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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- Louisiana has had 10 deaths.
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- Trucks last sprayed for mosquitoes in Chicago in 1975
following the outbreak of another mosquito-borne illness, St. Louis encephalitis,
a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Public Health said.
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- West Nile is common in Africa and Asia but did not appear
in the United States until 1999, when an outbreak in New York killed seven
people.
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- This year's outbreak began in southern states such as
Louisiana and Mississippi and has been slowly migrating to the north and
west, with California reporting its first suspected case on Friday.
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