By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
OLEAN — With the number of mosquito larvae in breeding pools climbing, Cattaraugus County health officials have decided to order aerial spraying of larvicide over wetland areas in the Allegheny River Valley and along parts of Olean and Ischua creeks.
Cattaraugus County Public Health Director Dr. Kevin D. Watkins said the spraying could begin as soon as late next week.
Contracts for spraying were approved earlier by the county legislature. Participating municipalities share in the cost of the spraying. Larvicide halts the development of mosquito larvae in the breeding pools without affecting other organisms.
Environmental Health Director Bob Ring said the timing is dependent on the weather. The county has permission to spray through June 24.
The health department hires interns each summer to monitor both numbers of mosquito larvae in a sampling of breeding pools in wetland areas and adult mosquitos caught in traps. The interns sort trapped mosquitoes, samples of which are analyzed by the state health department laboratory near Albany.
Ring told members of the Board of Health that homeowners bear some responsibility for denying mosquitoes a place to breed on their property. Anything that can contain water from a swimming pool cover to a can or other container that can fill with rain is a potential place for a mosquito to lay its eggs.
If the mosquito larvae don’t mature, they won’t lay eggs that start the cycle all over again. Mosquitoes can be hosts for and transmit diseases such as West Nile virus, equine encephalitis or the Zika virus, birds, animals and humans.
In March, county lawmakers approved a resolution to contract with Duflo Spray-Chemical Inc., Lowville, to spray 3,505 acres at $20.96 per acre or $73,479.
The City of Salamanca will contribute $20,653 and the City of Salamanca $8,527. Six towns are also participating: Allegany, $18,703; Carrollton, $2,964; Great Valley, $7,818; Hinsdale, $4,659; Olean, $4,084 and Portville, $6,068.
Ring also reported the health department has awarded its first contract under the federal lead abatement grant received in cooperation with Allegany County. The $50,000 bid will include window replacement, trim and inside lead paint.
The fix has to be good for 20 years and covers all lead-based threats, Ring said.
Children ingesting dust containing lead from flaking paint is the major cause of high levels of lead in young children’s blood. Lead exposure in children can lead to developmental delays, learning difficulties, neurological damage and kidney impairment.
“There is no safe level for lead,” said Watkins. The health department follows around 100 youth who have been found to have high levels of lead in their blood.
The Environmental Health Division inspects homes of children with high lead levels to help determine how the children were exposed.
Children with very high lead levels can require special treatment. In other cases, removing the child from the lead exposure can bring down the level of lead in the blood over time. The child is tested regularly until they reach the action level of 5 micrograms per deciliter.
Ring also reported this is the time of year when bats start moving around and an increase in the number of bat exposures in homes.
Nursing director Lynne Moore reported seven post-exposure rabies vaccines had been administered in May including for a car bite and bat exposure.
She also reported 25 probable cases of Lyme disease in May and one case of another tick-borne disease, Ehrlichiosis. Also, six cases of influenza B were reported, but no influenza A; 14 cases of covid 19 and 3 cases of RSV.
Watkins also reported to the board on recent communicable diseases in the news including the Andes virus strain of hantavirus from mouse droppings that killed several people on a cruise ship in the Atlantic. The group of expeditioners had visited Argentina where a member of the group was exposed while bird watching, Watkins said.
In another case last year, actor Gene Hackman died of hantavirus.
In the ongoing cases of Ebola in Africa, Watkins said it “hasn’t crossed to our shores” yet and that there “is a very low probability “ of it coming here because of the quarantine the U.S. and other countries have imposed.
Anyone coming to the U.S. from one of the affected areas must come through four East Coast airports for CDC screening, Watkins said.
Because of “the sheer number of cases and the delay in public health access,” health officials expect the Ebola cases “to linger for several months,” Watkins said.
