From The Porterville Recorder
September 25, 2017
The yellow fever mosquito has been found in the City of Tulare by the Tulare Mosquito Abatement District, the Tulare County Health and Human Services Agency reported.
Aedes aegypti, also known as the yellow fever mosquito, is capable of transmitting several human diseases, including dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika, stated Tammie Weyker-Adkins, public information officer with the county HHSA. This mosquito is not native to California and is the first detection in the City of Tulare. Since 2013 Aedes aegypti has been detected in 13 California counties.
“Our goal is to mitigate the spread of these invasive mosquitoes to other areas of Tulare or the county at large. Having Aedes aegypti in our district is very concerning as it is an efficient vector in spreading Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses,” said John Avila, General Manager of the Tulare Mosquito Abatement District.
The Tulare Mosquito Abatement District is working with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) in addition to the Tulare County Public Health Department to evaluate the extent of the infestation and will aggressively target problem areas to prevent its spread, Weyker-Adkins stated. These efforts will include door-to-door inspections of residential properties for standing water where mosquitoes can breed, increased surveillance through trapping, eliminating mosquito breeding sources, larval control, and ultra low volume fogging as necessary to target the invasive mosquitoes. Fogging will begin immediately in the infestation area.