Community Corner
West Nile Virus Found in Harbor City
Mosquitoes infected with West Nile Virus have been found near the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
This article was reported and written by City News Service.
Authorities began spraying the area around Machado Lake, a pond in a city park best known in the recent past as the home of Reggie The Alligator, on Wednesday in an attempt to combat West Nile Virus.
Testing done at the beginning of the year found confirmed cases of the disease, which can kill birds and in rare cases severely sicken people, in the Wilmington and Harbor City area, the Daily Breeze newspaper reported.
The center of the mosquito zone is Machado Lake and several storm drains in the area. The lake is where some unknown party dumped the alligator in 2005. Reggie lived in the swampy lagoon for two years before he was wrestled into captivity at the L.A. Zoo.
County vector control workers have been spraying the harbor area for mosquitoes for decades, but the discovery of the West Nile virus has them searching for a new plan.
"We're still learning so much about it and every year seems to be different," said Mark Hall, operations supervisor for the Greater Los Angeles Vector Control District, in a Daily Breeze article.
Most people bitten by a mosquito carrying the virus will not suffer any symptoms of illness, but about 20 percent will suffer fevers, headaches, nausea or a rash. One in 150 will require hospitalization, and 174 West Nile cases required hospitalization in Los Angeles County last year, the Daily Breeze reported.
In recent years, mosquitoes infected with West Nile Virus were discovered at the South Coast Botanical Gardens.
Standing water, even just a little in a bucket or pond, is the most-frequent mosquito nursery, county officials have said.
—Editor Nicole Mooradian contributed to this report.
Related:
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
