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.
Caribbean Emergency Vector Control Network
I checked the CDC, EPA, FEMA, Homeland Security and the US Northern Command and I see no efforts on their part for mosquito control mitigation. If any one is aware of any efforts that I have missed, please let me know.
But the Caribbean Emergency Vector Control Network has put out a call for entomologists to volunteer and help the relief efforts in the island of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands and supplies
The newly formed Caribbean Emergency Vector Control Network has issued an urgent appeal for vector control-related support for the countries, territories and communities most impacted by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
This unprecedented series of storms has left a wake of devastation throughout the region unseen in modern history. While many countries, territories and communities are still in life saving or life sustaining stages of recovery today, there is a growing urgency to prepare for and respond to the growing threat of vector-borne diseases transmitted by Aedes aegypti and other vectors in the coming weeks and months.
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.
DONATION LINKS
Here’s some great agencies with aid-workers hard at work on the ground in PR right now:
Vector control- Entomologists and commercial mosquito control supplies.
You Caring — Emergency Relief Fund for LGBTQ Boricuas
www.internationalmedicalrelief.org
americanblackcross.org — It’s a group of activists that were upset over the gaps in the traditional help groups after Harvey so decided to do something about. They are now concentrating on Puerto Rico.
You can donate right to the José Andrés’s Chef’s group at https://www.worldcentralkitchen.org
Hispanic Federation
Americares
Hurricane Maria Community Recovery Fund
Catholic Relief Services Hurricane Relief (Caribbean-wide)
Here is a GoFundMe we can get behind as well. To help those in the most need, celebrities and others started sending their private planes to pick up cancer patients, elderly, people needing medical care, etc.
More donation sites worthy of contributions. Thanks for posting them bfitzinAR
DK ACT BLUE (and other) DISASTER RELIEF DONATION LINKS:
Here’s a link from Bill McKibben for an org to help Puerto Rico:
From Vetwife, Former Presidents Working for All Americans:
Another choice, from Denise Oliver Velez:
- Unidos Fund, from the Hispanic Federation (After you click the orange DONATE button on the Unidos page, you’ll see a dropdown below your name & address. You can choose to donate to hurricane relief for PR, and also to Mexican earthquake relief.)
And of course, h/t TexMex: