If mosquitoes weren’t one of the Biblical plagues visited on Egypt, they should have been.
You’ve probably heard of the potentially deadly West Nile virus, but this summer, people in the Houston area could begin to be at more risk of contracting two other mosquito-borne viruses.
Chikungunya made headlines last year after Texas’ first cases were reported in the Austin and Houston areas. In both cases, the patients had recently visited the Caribbean, where the virus is more common. The disease causes fevers and severe joint pain. So far, there have been no known transmissions of the virus here, but experts are braced for the possibility this summer. The virus is not usually fatal, but it often causes excruciating joint pain.
Dengue, however, can be deadly, and it is a major cause of illness and death in the tropics and subtropics, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms include severe headache, eye pain, joint pain, muscle or bone pain, rash, mild bleeding (such as from the nose or gums or easy bruising), and low white cell count.
Local transmissions of these two viruses could start in part because Houston is a major air travel hub, said Dr. Scott Weaver, director of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston’s Institute for Human Infections and Immunity. “We have imported cases all the time. We have the right mosquito to initiate the transmission cycle.”
That mosquito is the Aedes aegypti, one of the most common of the dozens of types of mosquitoes in the Houston area.
Chikungunya just arrived in the Americas in the last year and half and has been spreading north through Mexico, where the virus has not been before, Weaver said. So it could cross the border.
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The Aedes aegypti bites in the daytime, while the type the carries West Nile virus, Culex, strikes in the evening. So bug repellent should be worn anytime, not just at dawn and dusk, when the Culex mosquitoes are most active.
Aedes aegypti also tends to enter people’s houses, where public spraying efforts can’t reach them.
“You can’t just stay inside and assume you’ll be protected,” Weaver said.
He advises checking your property every few days to empty or remove debris, flower pots, or anything else that may hold standing water.
Remember, it’s gonna be a bad year for us, skeeter-wise. Take every reasonable step you can to minimize the threat.