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LOS ANGELES – A surge in West Nile virus cases has Los Angeles County stepping up its fight against mosquitoes, with crews spraying pesticides in La Puente Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
At least 100 people have been infected with West Nile virus in Los Angeles County this year, with 94 hospitalized and five deaths, according to county health officials.<\/p>\n
And residents are taking notice.<\/p>\n
“I hate mosquitoes and their [bleep] bites itch and I hate them,” said Bree, a La Puente resident.<\/p>\n
Darlene, another resident, said she is especially concerned because she is pregnant.<\/p>\n
“This is like the worst thing ever. I\u2019m pregnant and I\u2019m trying to avoid all the mosquitoes I can,” she said.<\/p>\n
Why are West Nile cases surging? <\/p>\n
Anais Medina Diaz, director of communications for vector control, said warm overnight temperatures are helping fuel mosquito activity.<\/p>\n
“It stayed warm. Stays warm overnight. There\u2019s a lot of mosquito activity, disease activity,” Diaz said.<\/p>\n
Vector control crews in La Puente were preparing to spray pesticides Wednesday night, targeting mosquitoes capable of spreading West Nile virus.<\/p>\n
“Mosquitoes are the most deadly creature in the world,” Diaz said. “They contribute to over a million deaths a year because of the diseases they can transmit.”<\/p>\n
The county has reported more than four times as many West Nile cases so far this year compared with all of last year.<\/p>\n
Cases have been reported from the South Bay to the San Fernando Valley and East Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
West Nile symptoms <\/p>\n
West Nile virus can cause fever, confusion and muscle weakness. Severe cases can lead to neurological illness or death.<\/p>\n
“Some people get very severe disease. This would include neurologic symptoms, or even death,” said Dr. Dawn Terashita of internal medicine and public health. “There\u2019s no treatment or vaccine for West Nile virus.”<\/p>\n
Not everyone in La Puente is alarmed.<\/p>\n
“It hasn\u2019t really crossed my mind,” one resident said.<\/p>\n
Others are simply tired of the mosquitoes.<\/p>\n
“I hate mosquitoes. Can we get rid of them? They irk me,” Bree said. “They\u2019re spraying for them tonight. Oh, good.”<\/p>\n
With West Nile activity surging, vector control officials are hoping the spraying can help slow the spread.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s scary. It\u2019s like the silent killer,” Darlene said.<\/p>\n
Health<\/a>Los Angeles County<\/a>California<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES – A surge in West Nile virus cases has Los Angeles County stepping up its fight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1184,1570,48,52,51,47,137,50,49,100,1181],"class_list":["post-473968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-health","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}