No West Nile Surveillance This Year in Northern B.C.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 03:57 AM

Prince George, B.C. - As the City of Prince George announces it has it's mosquito abatement program underway, Northern Health announces its plans for West Nile virus surveillance.

For the first time in four years, Northern Health will not be trapping mosquitoes and analyzing dead crows to look for West Nile Virus. Instead, the focus will be on how residents of the region can avoid contact with the disease when travelling elsewhere.

“Each year, we learn more about the kind of mosquitoes that spread West Nile virus, like their preferred habitat and how temperatures affect their ability to breed and spread the virus,” said Lucy Beck, Northern Health Regional Director, Public Health Protection. “All this information indicates that the Northern Health region is at very low risk for the mosquito population spreading WNv. But that does not mean we should be complacent.”

Information already gathered indicates there is an extremely low possibility WNv will arrive in the north before it appears other regions of B.C. Northern Health will re-evaluate the program if or when the virus arrives elsewhere in the province. If there is any indication that the risk has increased, NH will reintroduce surveillance activities.

“People should already be taking precautions when they travel to places where the virus is already active,” said Beck. “The need for personal protection will remain the key message regardless of whether WNv ever appears in the north”,

The public can still report sightings of dead corvids on line at the BC Centre for Disease Control website.

Meantime, the City 's Mosquito Control Program for 2008 is underway. The City expects to treat over 500 hectares of mosquito habitat with Vectobac. Vectobac is an environmentally friendly larvacide that kills only mosquito and black fly larvae. The 2008 control program will again be delivered by City Staff and Spectrum of Prince George.

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Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 03:57 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: dwmoskowitz on May 27 2008 12:16 PM

My biotech company, GenoMed (OTC Pink Sheets: GMED) has had encouraging results treating West Nile virus encephalitis since 2003: 81% treatment success rate in people (22 of 27), 75% in horses, and 50% in birds. Our first 8 WNV patients were published in a peer-reviewed medical journal in 2004. We�re eager to see if our approach works again this year. Anybody who wants to download our WNV trial protocol can do so for free at any time by clicking on the "West Nile trial" link on our company�s homepage at www.genomed.com.

Dave Moskowitz MD
CEO & Chief Medical Officer
GenoMed, Inc.
www.genomed.com