The National Public Health Service has commenced a heightened surveillance and interception programme following mosquito larvae being collected from a routine surveillance trap at Queens Wharf, Auckland on Monday 30 March. The larvae have been confirmed as Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are an exotic specimen not normally found in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Medical Officer of Health Dr David Sinclair says there is not considered to be any wider public health or biosecurity risk from these larvae yet, because there is no indication to date that the mosquitoes have become established. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have started intensive monitoring and trapping to ensure there are no other specimens and they cannot become established. This involves searching for mosquito breeding sites, sampling for mosquito larvae, and removing or treating sites to prevent mosquito breeding,\u201d Dr Sinclair says. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe do find exotic mosquitoes at our international ports and airports occasionally. Our routine surveillance and control programmes are very effective. Health New Zealand plays an important role in responding to biosecurity risks that could have a potential impact for public health.\u201d <\/p>\n
The heightened monitoring will take place for at least three weeks, within a 400m radius of the site where the larvae were identified. Health NZ is working alongside Ministry for Primary Industries border officers, Ports of Auckland, and Auckland Council, and has run many similar interceptions previously.<\/p>\n
The response also involves Health Protection Officers placing mosquito traps in the survey area. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese have been hidden away from plain sight so they are not disturbed, for example in old tyres, bushes or pools of water. We ask members of the public to avoid touching or disturbing these traps if they find them, as it may disrupt our monitoring and trapping efforts,\u201d says Dr Sinclair.<\/p>\n
Local residents, businesses and construction sites can support the response by preventing mosquito breeding sites forming around their homes or premises. For example, by getting rid of standing water and turning over empty pots or other containers which may collect it. Information on how to do this is available at: healthnz.govt.nz\/mosquitoes. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you spot any dead mosquitoes near Queens Wharf or within the survey area, for example in puddles or pools of standing water, please also report them to 0800 669 943. This is free to call and available 24 hours a day. They can then be collected and tested to verify if they are an exotic specimen,\u201d says Dr Sinclair.<\/p>\n
Public health routinely carries out surveillance checks for exotic mosquitoes at all international ports, working with other agencies. These checks monitor for non-native mosquitoes being brought in via international planes and vessels, and stops them from breeding and becoming established in New Zealand. <\/p>\n
\u201cExotic mosquitoes can pose a public health risk if they become established as some species can carry serious infectious diseases. Aedes aegypti is linked with transmission of several viruses, including yellow fever virus, dengue fever, chikungunya virus and Zika virus. However, outbreaks of these diseases do not occur in New Zealand as these mosquitoes are not established here.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The National Public Health Service has commenced a heightened surveillance and interception programme following mosquito larvae being collected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[134,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-359670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}