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- NEW YORK (Reuters)
- Health workers in helicopters and trucks will spray all of New York City
with insecticide to stem a rare outbreak of mosquito-borne encephalitis
that has claimed three lives and may be spreading, officials said Thursday.
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- "By the time we are finished we will spray the entire
city," Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said at a news conference to announce
plans to extend the spraying of the insecticide malathion from the boroughs
of Queens and the Bronx to all five city boroughs in the coming weeks to
kill mosquitoes.
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- "The information we received is that there is a
possibility that if you don't continue to spray, the whole thing can start
up again," Giuliani said of measures to fight the first recorded outbreak
of St Louis Encephalitis in New York City.
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- Three people, all of them in their 80s and living in
the borough of Queens, have died since the Sept. 2 outbreak of the viral
infection that can swell the brain, cause fevers, delirium and weakness.
The disease is named after the city where it first appeared in 1933 and
is more commonly found in the southeastern United States.
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- The number of confirmed cases has risen to nine from
five in recent days, and for the first time health officials have confirmed
a case outside of Queens, in Brooklyn. But officials said there was no
reason for alarm or panic.
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- New York City Health Commissioner Neal Cohen said 56
other people were waiting for laboratory results from the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to find out whether they were
infected. Earlier, officials said there were 48 suspected cases but eight
more were reported Thursday.
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- Officials said the CDC had recommended that the entire
city be sprayed with malathion, which they say is not harmful to people,
pets or vegetables.
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- "You have a very large population at risk,"
Roger Nasci, a CDC entomologist said. "We believe this is the best
approach."
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- Health workers using three helicopters and six trucks
will expand the spraying effort starting Thursday in Brooklyn, Queens and
the Bronx between 5 p.m. EDT and 9 p.m. EDT and Friday from 5 a.m. to 8
a.m., the periods when mosquitoes are most active. Manhattan will be sprayed
from trucks.
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- "We will continue spraying for the next few weeks
and will set up a schedule for regular spraying until there is a frost,"
said Jerome Hauer, director of the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management.
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- Authorities have used helicopters and hand-held spraying
devices since the outbreak to spray malathion in Queens and the Bronx in
parkland, nonresidential areas and public schools.
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- The New York City Health Department advised residents
in potentially affected areas to wear long-sleeved shirts, long pants and
socks and to use insect repellent when outdoors, especially at dawn and
dusk, when mosquitoes are most active.
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