Columbus Air Force Base is keeping an eye out for mosquitoes that could potentially carry the Zika virus.
Stephanie Englar, a Senior Airman with CAFB’s public affairs office, said the base is making sure all of its members stay informed about the virus and minimizing transmission. CAFB’s Public Health office is also performing entomology surveillance daily to monitor mosquito populations.
“Their BG-Sentinel 2 mosquito trap attracts the aedes aegypti, a common carrier of the Zika virus,” Englar said. “Mosquitos that are caught are sent to a lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for testing. The Public Health office also works with the Pest Management office to minimize the places that the mosquitoes may congregate on the base.”
Earlier this month, Military Times reported that the Department of Defense is monitoring 190 installations in U.S. 27 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico for Zika activity. The report is based on a memo the Pentagon issued in March. The concern is that the bases are located in areas where potential carriers — aedes aegypti, aedes albopictus and aedes polynesiensis mosquitoes — could spread during the summer months.
Military Times reported that the Pentagon memo calls on installations to monitor, trap and test mosquitoes, and to eliminate water sources that could serve as breeding grounds.
“This must be a sustained effort in order to reduce and control the population…failure to implement a coordinated, sustained control effort will allow for a (mosquito population) that could transmit Zika,” wrote Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, Dr. Jonathan Woodson, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Basing, Peter Potochney, according to the Military Times report.
At least two people near the Golden Triangle have been infected with the Zika virus. In March, a Noxubee County resident was diagnosed with the virus. An Oktibbeha County resident was diagnosed in April. Both diagnoses came after the residents went to Haiti, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health.
Most affected by the virus have mild or no symptoms and are unlikely to die from the illness. The breed of mosquito spreading Zika has not been detected in Mississippi since the mid-1980s, MSDH said in a release earlier in the spring. Officials, though, are monitoring the mosquito population. Reports of Zika cases in the Caribbean, Central and South America have rapidly increased in the last year.
“Pregnant women should not be traveling to these countries,” State Epidemiologist Dr. Thomas Dobbs said. “All cases reported in the United States so far are related to international travel.
“With late spring and summer approaching, we know it is a popular time for mission trips and vacations to these areas. Please be especially mindful of protecting yourself from mosquitoes while you’re abroad.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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