A New Mosquito Has Landed 

Staten Island Advance - Sunday, October 21, 2007

They're aggressive, often attack in packs and, unlike most mosquitoes, bite during the day.

And they're carriers for such debilitating tropical diseases as chikungunya, yellow and dengue fever. They can carry dog heartworm and different types of encephalitis.

The Asian Tiger mosquito has landed on Staten Island. And although the 2007 season is winding down (the first frost will kill most remaining bugs), its presence could be felt even stronger after eggs from this year's mosquitoes hatch come spring, experts say.

First spotted here in 1997, the white-striped insect scientifically known as Aedes albopictus, has become increasingly prevalent in the borough, causing experts to fear consequences more severe than from West Nile virus.

"We are intensely interested in this mosquito," said Dr. Randy Gaugler, director for the Center for Vector Biology at Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J. He noted that the chikungunya fever outbreak that occurred in Italy this summer, sickening at least 200 -- the first recorded outbreak of the disease in a non-tropical region. The year before, more than a million Chikungunya cases were reported around the Indian Ocean and it probably made its way to Italy by way of travelers, Gaugler said.

The black Asian Tiger mosquito, which can carry and transmit at least 22 arboviruses (viruses spread by mosquitoes), was first discovered in the United States in Houston, Texas in 1985, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's believed to have arrived with shipments of scrap tires from northern Asia and has since spread to 678 counties in 25 states, mostly in the south and southeast.

With its rapid ability to spread and its eggs' durable nature -- which allow them to hatch in a small enough amount of water as that in a bottle cap -- entomologists are keeping a keen eye on the bug.

"It could be the next West Nile or worse," Gaugler said. "It's a very, very big deal."

CROSSING STATE LINES

Pockets of the Asian Tiger mosquito have been discovered as far north as Maine, though they are not known to have survived a winter farther north than the Bronx, according to Gaugler. Already discovered in every county but three in New Jersey, the mosquito is becoming more of a problem after crossing state lines.

"It's something to be concerned about," said Dr. Albert Burchsted, a field biologist and a retired College of Staten Island biology professor, who said he has been bitten by the mosquito at his Westerleigh home several times this summer. "Once it's here, as long as the eggs survive the winter, it will stay here. There is no eradicating it."

Its survivability is documented. Short of an extremely cold winter with prolonged periods of negative-0 degree Fahrenheit temperatures, the eggs will be ready to be hatched come warmer weather next year, Burchsted said. The best way to protect oneself is to be diligent about using insect repellent, he said. Daytime spraying to kill the mosquito would be difficult to administer, especially because this would potentially kill other insects like honey bees.

Typically, mosquitoes belonging to the Culex family are found in the New York area. The Culex salinarius and Culex restuans, which carry the feared West Nile virus, generally bite around dusk and after dark.

But the Asian Tiger mosquito bites in the middle of the day and, often, several will bite humans at the same time, leaving welts the size of dimes. Besides having disease-carrying potential, the pests can affect quality of life for people who like to be outdoors, Gaugler said. The Asian Tiger mosquito is ranked among the 100 most invasive species on the planet.

"With globalization, we have all these new and emerging diseases that are spreading," Gaugler said. With Asian Tiger mosquitoes here, "it's just a matter of time before the vector and the diseases reunite."

SPREADING THE VIRUS

Tropical diseases, though uncommon here, can be spread by mosquitoes. Here's the scenerio: A Staten Islander travels to a tropical location, such as the Caribbean, and becomes infected. Upon return, an Asian Tiger mosquito can bite that person, becoming a vector for the disease, before going on to bite someone else, spreading the virus.
Chickunguya is a painful viral disease that causes debilitating illness, most often characterized by fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, rash, and joint pain, according to the CDC.

 There is no vaccine for Chikungunya, which typically lasts from a few days to a couple weeks, but can cause arthritic pains for months.
Yellow fever, which is treatable, has symptoms ranging from influenza to severe hepatitis and hemorrhagic fever; dengue fever can result in high fever, severe headache, backache, joint pains, nausea and vomiting, eye pain, and rash. Heartworm, a parasite, can live in the hearts of dogs or cats, and can cause them to suffer heart failure.

"It would make West Nile look like a walk in the park," Burchsted said about the potential for disease associated with the mosquito. He fears that the medical community wouldn't know how to handle the influx of new diseases. "If somebody comes in contact with an illness that these mosquitoes can vector, then we're going to have an explosion of cases. [Hospitals] wouldn't be prepared to make diagnoses and they wouldn't be prepared to treat either."

PLAN OF ACTION

The Health Department has human dengue fever surveillance and a plan in place for as how to deal with the disease if and when it arrives here, a spokeswoman said. But experts have not yet seen any evidence of the disease, she said.

"Although it can be found in New York City, the Asian Tiger mosquito does not pose a public health threat to people in New York City," according to a statement from the agency. "While Asian Tiger mosquitoes are known to transmit dengue, there is no evidence of local transmission of dengue in New York City or anywhere in the region."

Dr. Mark Jarrett, chief medical officer at Staten Island University Hospital, would be prepared to train doctors on short notice for how to deal with the tropical ailments.

Though no specific plan is currently in effect for yellow, dengue and chikungunya fever, hospitals would act in similar fashion as when SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and bird flu became global concerns in recent years to work with the Health Department and CDC to develop readiness plans, he said.

"We would be able to gear up very quickly," he said, pointing out that infectious diseases take time to develop and spread, buying medical professionals some time to come up with a plan of attack. "You would have a little bit of a timeline to certainly get out and educate everybody."

With "a million" diseases worldwide, hospitals here can only do so much to prepare for potential outbreaks, Jarrett said. But after experiences with SARS and bird flu, the medical community is better prepared to quickly mobilize and get ready for treating a new disease, he said.

"One can never say what's going to be coming down the pike at any time," he said. "We always have to be prepared for something new. The key is to be alert." 
.

By Glenn Nyback
Reprinted here with permission from the