Concern over Mosquito-Borne Diseases Prompts Workshop
By MIKE SECCOMBE
Get T.J. Hegarty started on the subject of mosquito-borne diseases on Martha's Vineyard and the conversation becomes quickly alarming.
The Dukes county rodent control officer rattles off statistics about the incidence of West Nile virus and Eastern Equine encephalitis in nearby areas, before coming to his scary conclusion: "It's not if we're going to be touched by this, but when."
His grim certitude about future illness and possible death from these diseases has spurred him on what he calls a roadshow of presentations to selectmen, health officers, the Wampanoag tribal council and other authorities over the past several weeks. Mr. Hegarty is an enthusiastic proponent of a commercial product called Altosid for mosquito control
This week it led him to convene a seminar where people could hear and meet with off-Island experts - and a representative of the company which makes Altosid - to discuss future mosquito surveillance and control on the Vineyard. It was a meeting where alarmism met skepticism and and resulted in a somewhat half-hearted resolution to do - something.
Mr. Hegarty's position is clear.
"It's about rebuilding a mosquito control program for Martha's Vineyard. That's is what the whole deal's about. We have nothing here," he told the Gazette before the seminar.
"It's coming up because the state is concerned. There's been a rise in EEE cases and West Nile is an epidemic across the country. There's been more cases in Plymouth county and Norfolk county than anywhere else in the state, cases in Fairhaven and Sandwich had infected mosquitoes trapped, and the death of a teenager in Middleboro," he said, adding:
"Between 1838 and 2005 there were 83 human cases of EEE in Massachusetts and 47 of them died. In 2005, four cases. A kid died last year.
"There's no cure. If you're young or you're old, there's a good chance you're going to die, and if you're in between you may have some part of your life back, but not all of it, because there is no full recovery," he said.
But the other side of the story is this - there has never been a human case of either disease here.
And a far more cautious position comes from Edgartown health agent Matt Poole who would like to see some basic questions addressed before Island towns or the county begin talking about control programs.
"Like, are you addressing a nuisance issue that causes people to run indoors from their cocktail party on the lawn when the sun sets, or a health risk?" he said, adding:
"It's a bit of a stab in the dark to say Martha's Vineyard needs mosquito control without getting some sense of what problems we're trying to solve here. My position is that doing it for the sake of control doesn't seem like responsible use of money."
Mr. Poole said he knew of no cases of EEE at all on tyhe Vineyard, and said there had been only a few instances of bird deaths from West Nile.
Gabrielle Sakalosky, a Cape Cod Mosquito Control entomologist and one of the experts brought in for yesterday's seminar, held at the public safety building in West Tisbury, also said she knew of no cases of EEE and only a few of bird-borne West Nile on the Island.
She said she attended the seminar only to talk about how control programs work. The favored control measures include Bti, a type of bacterium which is introduced into the environment and which kills mosquito larvae that feed on it, and the aforementioned Altosid, a synthetic hormone which prevents the larvae growing to maturity.
Ms. Sakalosky said she was aware of no negative effects from the two agents on other species or the environment as a whole.
The Altosid representative, Jeffrey O'Neill, also promoted the environmental neutrality of the product, although several people who attended the seminar said he seriously undermined his argument when he got sidetracked into a defense of the environmental safety of DDT.
Certainly the prospect of any use of mosquito control chemicals on the Vineyard appears some way off.
After the seminar, county commissioner Carlene Gatting said she was persuaded of the need to talk further, and at least to set up a surveillance program to find out if the mosquitoes here present a public health risk.
"I think we have a responsibility to look at least to putting in a monitoring program. You can do that without getting to the point of using any of these scary sounding chemicals," she said, adding:
"You can monitor and have a backup plan ready, to spray if necessary, so I think we're going to get together with the [town] boards of health to plan.
"Hopefully we'll never have to spray any of that nasty stuff. But at least we have a backup plan if we need it.
Another county commissioner, Tristan Israel, also said he was concerned to learn that potential disease was as close as the Cape and in birds on the Island.
"So I think we would be remiss not to look into it. I think it also would be remiss not to ask questions about toxicology," he said.
"I also understand if someone were to die here of either of those diseases, the discussion about the environment would be out the window."
But for now, it appears, when it comes to moquito control, Island leaders intend to make haste slowly.
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