West Nile Virus can lead to Polio-like disease.
Acute Flaccid Myelitis
Acute flaccid myelitis is a rare polio-like illness. Sadly, the paralysis it causes affects mostly children. Unfortunately, the sickness is confirmed in Florida this year.
On Wednesday, Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville confirmed that a 3-year-old girl recently diagnosed with acute flaccid myelitis (AFM). AFM, a rare condition, causes muscles and reflexes to become weak.
Symptoms
Symptoms of AFM developed after a viral infection such as the West Nile virus. Which, is carried by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito that’s now invasive in Florida.
This year, more than half of all US states confirmed potential cases of acute flaccid myelitis. Incredibly, from August 2014 through September 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received information on a total of 386 confirmed cases of AFM across the US. Remarkably, most of the cases occurred in children.
Although, symptoms appear similar to polio AFM is not polio.
Recommendations
The CDC recommends parents seek medical care immediately if their child develops sudden weakness or loss of muscle tone in the arms or legs.
Moreover, while the CDC doesn’t know the cause of most AFM cases, it recommends parents help protect their children. Follow prevention steps like washing hands, staying up to date on recommended immunizations. Also, the use of insect repellent is helpful. Even covering coughs and sneezes and staying home from school or work when sick is helpful.
What to do
If you have a mosquito infestation on your property, try to contact a Florida pest control specialist. Do so as quickly as possible to get it dealt with quickly and effectively.
Mosquitoes seem to be everywhere these days. They are in our parks, schools, homes, yards and more. Not only are mosquitoes a nuisance, but some can also actually spread diseases to our family and pets. Consequently, it is important to have some plan to battle these creatures. Hiring a Mosquito Spray Service is helpful to gain control of an infestation around your home or business. However, it is essential to remove mosquito nesting areas as well to reduce the likelihood of these bloodsuckers from feeding on you and your family.
What else to do
Now, Mosquito Control Services will help with the following list but you can reduce the nesting of mosquitoes on your own as well. Make sure to work this list weekly.
- Clean out clogged gutters.
- Attempt to correct any low areas where water will collect.
- Empty pet water and replace with fresh water weekly.
- Empty bird baths and replace with fresh water weekly.
- Replace water in neglected swimming pools.
- Turn over or remove any toys/wagons/etc that will collect water, weekly.
- Empty saucers at the bottom of flower pots weekly.
- Discard any tires stored on your property.
- Repair leaky hoses etc.
- Remove buckets and barrels from the exterior or empty once per week.
- Cover all boats.
Working the above list is a great way to remove mosquito breeding sites from your property. By eliminating the breeding areas you, in turn, reduce the number of adult mosquitoes that will attempt to feed on you whenever you are in your yard. Sometimes, working the above list is not enough to eliminate many of these blood-sucking critters. Consequently, it may be necessary to hire a professional mosquito service to treat the yard as well. These professional treatments will allow pest control products to reach areas where mosquitoes live.
Click here for an article entitled “Plants the Mosquitoes Hate”.
