PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — The Pasco County Mosquito Control District is reviewing its safety measures and increasing its efforts to protect the public in response to the regional health crisis related to dengue and a recent helicopter crash in Manatee County.
During Tuesday's board meeting with the Pasco County Mosquito Control District, leaders provided an update on the dengue outbreak.
Watch Annette Gutierrez's report below:
"It is concerning. Fortunately, we're prepared. We've got the expertise — we certainly have the expertise and the equipment here," Pasco County Mosquito Control District Commissioner Matthew "Skeeter" Abbott said.
The latest data from the Florida Department of Health shows 368 dengue cases statewide — including 310 in Hillsborough County, 37 in Pinellas County and four in Pasco County.
Pasco County Mosquito Control District Executive Director Adriane Rogers says as soon as the local cases began, the district got proactive and began intensifying its efforts from the ground to the skies — with boots on the ground knocking on doors educating the pulblic, trucks spraying in neighborhoods and helicopters spraying over homes.
"We were very actively targeting Aedes aegypti populations, the mosquito vector that's capable of transmitting dengue and was responsible for the dengue outbreak here in the Tampa Bay region," Rogers said.
Those working to control mosquito populations also face risks in the field. Last week, a Manatee County Mosquito Control District pilot died while on the job.
"It's a terrible, terrible tragedy. And, we certainly, our hearts and our prayers go out to the team at Manatee County Mosquito Control District, to Ike and his family," Rogers said.
Rogers says the pilots are all highly trained, but the job comes with risks because of how low they have to fly.
"The nature of how mosquito control pilots operate, we're flying at very low levels. We're trying to target mosquitoes that are around people, or around our pets or our livestock — and trying to protect public health," Rogers said.
She adds that the altitude that the pilots are flying depends on the treatment method.
"For adult applications — so this is treatment that we would typically do in the evening hours after the sun sets — we're a little bit higher off the ground.... If we're doing aerial larvicide applications, the altitude that the pilot is flying is often much lower, sometimes you know 30 ft off the top of a treetop or or above congested areas," Rogers said.
And it all comes down to treating the areas where mosquitoes are laying their eggs.
"What we're trying to do is get a liquid product down into those flower pots and into those rain gutters," Rogers said. "In order to effectively treat a particular area, your target area, you have to be very low to do that to allow the drift of those very fine droplets to get to your target area."
It takes a team of experts and an entire community to fight this issue. Recently, the state was able to provide additional funding, allowing the district to contract extra help.
"The governor's emergency declaration for the hurricane that just passed allowed for additional supplemental support from our state partners. So Pasco County, Pinellas County and Hillsborough counties were all added to that emergency order for the storm, which is really positive because it allows us to access additional state resources that we didn't have prior to the storm passing through," Rogers said.
Rogers says because the Aedes aegypti has an affinity for humans, crews are performing aerial sprays near homes.
"This is the mosquito that is utilizing small water-holding containers around homes and businesses, sometimes even inside of homes, to produce their young, to lay their eggs," Rogers said. "This is not the mosquito that's coming off that large cypress swamp over here behind us or the drainage ditches along the roadway."
That's why she says everybody needs to do their part and empty all the water containers in their yards.
The district is also watching how Amendment 3 could impact its operations, since it is funded solely on ad valorem property taxes.
"[It] really points out that we need appropriate funding, uh, not only here in Pasco County but in all counties in the state of Florida as conditions change, as climate changes, and as we have this constant back and forth of people transitioning through our airports, our ports, and also for work environments. These diseases are spreading and will continue to spread," Abbott said.
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