Governments will have little to no resources to rebuild and then strengthen vector control programs in the near future, leaving both vector control recovery efforts and the requirements for advancing stronger vector control in this new post-storm landscape among a long list of many competing priorities.
Conditions are ideal for disease in Puerto Rico. Rains have left pools of standing water that have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes. People are living without roofs and/or without walls in many locations after Hurricane Maria’s 155 mph winds devastated the island. Hurricane Irma destroyed many islands including the US Virgin Islands. Those without access water have been forced to resort to contaminated streams and rivers to wash their clothes, taking a bath and even drinking water risking severe gastro-intestinal diseases such as gastroenteritis and conjunctivitis. “There are 47 types of adenoviruses and the diseases resulting from infections include conjunctivitis, pharyngitis, pneumonia; acute and chronic appendicitis, exanthematous disease, bronchiolitis, acute respiratory disease, and gastroenteritis (types 40 and 41). Adenovirus is considered to be only second to rotavirus in terms of its significance as a pathogen of childhood gastroenteritis. Adenovirus infections are usually acute and self-limiting with a greater severity of illness occurring in the immunocompromised (e.g. AIDS patients and transplant recipients)”. The piles of debris, which line street after street after street are a breeding ground for vermin. Leptospirosis, a disease transmitted by the urine of infected animals, including mice, rats and dogs has already been documented.
Disease spreading mosquitoes could soon overrun Puerto Rico
Vice News reports on vector-borne disease and the response.
“The mosquito population is already coming out, and it’s making life impossible,” said Manuel Lluberas, a former Navy entomologist and executive director for public health for HD Hudson, a manufacturer of commercial spraying systems. Lluberas lives in Carolina, Puerto Rico, but he spoke with VICE News from a hotel in San Juan, one of the only places on the island with power. His house doesn’t have running water either.
Lluberas predicted at least a dozen mosquitoes would hit someone walking outside — and that’s a conservative estimate. Hurricane Maria dumped more than two feet of rain on the island in just under 24 hours, turning dumpsters and other large receptacles into incubation chambers for mosquitoes that spread severe flu-like diseases, such as dengue fever and chikungunya, as well as Zika. The flooding also left standing water, where mosquitoes can also breed, strewn across the devastated island.
After natural disasters, organizations like FEMA and even the military often send their entomologists to help with mosquito-control efforts. But at this point, no one appears to have a plan to address the situation.
U.S. Northern Command, tasked with coordinating the military’s relief efforts after the hurricanes, has no mosquito control efforts currently underway in Puerto Rico, public affairs officer Lt. Commander Joe Nawrocki told VICE News, although he expects those orders to come down in the next week or so.
The CDC doesn’t have any plans yet either, according to a spokesperson, who told VICE News to contact the Puerto Rican government directly. “During an emergency response, federal, state, and local priority is on life-saving missions,” the CDC spokesperson said. “Once the immediate threat has been mitigated, authorities will turn to the discussion of mosquito control.”
The Puerto Rican Department of Health didn’t respond to a request for comment. FEMA referred VICE News to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which didn’t respond to a request for comment either.
(I found this to be still true. “After natural disasters, organizations like FEMA and even the military often send their entomologists to help with mosquito-control efforts. But at this point, no one appears to have a plan to address the situation”. The CDC has a dengue branch. But in my google searches I have not seen any relevant Agency with plans nor having entomologist staff on the ground.)
Vice news notes that mosquitoes don’t cause the disease but instead picks up these diseases from infected blood. It is than transferred to human beings via their bite.
...dengue fever has already plagued Puerto Rico for decades, and starting in 2014, cases of chikungunya also appeared in alarming numbers. Because these diseases already exist in Puerto Rico’s population, more mosquitoes means a higher risk of spreading them. And while Puerto Rico declared its Zika outbreak over in June, the CDC has still maintained its travel warning.