Maclay neighborhood ground zero for Zika
County goes on the offensive in fight against mosquitos
A woodsy neighborhood nestled between the hills of Maclay Gardens is ground zero for Tallahassee’s first Zika virus case.
Residents of Oak Knoll Estates north of Maclay Road were greeted Saturday morning by county health department and mosquito control officials. They passed out literature, told them about the Zika case in their neighborhood and asked if they wanted an inspection of their property.
“Obviously this isn’t something we need to ignore,” homeowner Len Faulkner said, glad that the county was being proactive.
Test results that came back to the state Friday showed the patient had contracted the Zika virus, said Sarah Revell, media and marketing manager for the Florida Department of Health. The person contracted the disease outside of the U.S., she said.
“We will be able to share that information on Monday about where the person was traveling from,” Revell said.
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Information gathered and used for epidemiological investigations are exempt from state public records law, she said. Federal HIPPA law prohibits the release of information that could identify a medical patient.
Four hundred cases spread throughout 30 counties have been reported in Florida. That includes 55 pregnant women. Fifteen non-travel related cases were found in the downtown Miami design district of Wynwood.
The Centers for Disease Control said there are close to 2,000 cases nationwide, including 500 pregnant women.
While she didn’t know the details of this case, Revell said that many times a patient goes to a health care provider, who recognizes the symptoms and asks the patient about their travel history. The doctor orders tests to determine if the person has the virus.
It then becomes the responsibility of the local health department and mosquito control to canvas the neighborhood where the patient lives, determine a radius where they need to conduct mosquito abatement and conduct a door to door outreach, she said.
“I didn’t know about this until they showed up this morning,” musician Scott Campbell said. He knew that an outbreak existed in South Florida, and is not comfortable that someone has it here.
“Could this person be a carrier? I am not at all sure how all that works,” he said. “This means it is a a little more in my face.”
There is no treatment for the virus. Early symptoms include headaches, a rash, bloodshot eyes and a fever. It disappears in a few days.
The Zika virus is spread through sexual contact. Pregnant women can pass the virus on to their developing fetus, which in turn can cause microcephaly and other serious birth defects.
It is also spread through the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquito, both of which are common to most of Florida. The same two species spread dengue and chikungunya viruses. It can be transmitted directly by the mosquito.
“It is just a sign of the times, really,” said Larry Hunt, retired director of the Baptist Center at Florida A&M University and a resident for more than 40 years in the neighborhood where the virus was discovered.
His wife, Dorothy, said it was just a matter of time before it showed up in Tallahassee. “It’s summertime. People are traveling. Someone had possibly come back with the virus.”
The county folks were very helpful, she said. They walked around the yard and pointed to planters that needed to be emptied of water every three days.
That’s the general protocol
“We ask if they wanted us to walk their grounds, looking for areas where standing water might be,” Deputy county manager Alan Rosenzweig said. “We ask if they wanted spraying on their property, and we set traps in the neighborhood to monitor to see if there are any more mosquitoes in the area.”
Fred Calder said he was concerned about people over-reacting and wanting whole-scale spraying when all they needed was to get rid of any standing water. Calder keeps bees on his property and has planted native plants to encourage native bees and butterflies to pollinate.
“Prevention is easy,” Calder said. “Spraying should be a last resort.”
There is no reason to conduct any widespread spraying, Rosenzweig said.
Calder’s wife, Meta, said the spread of Zika to Tallahassee was inevitable because someone was bound to get it somewhere and bring it back.
“I am concerned about children being born with microcephaly,” she said.