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UPDATED: West Nile death reported in Plano
By Conner Hammett, chammett@starlocalnews.com
The year's first death caused by West Nile Virus in Plano has been reported in the 75025 zip code, the city's environmental health department announced Tuesday.
The victim was a woman in her 80s, county health officials told the city, though no further information has been made available due to patient confidentiality laws.
The report is the first of its kind this year in Collin County, which has now seen 37 West Nile cases.
Geoffrey Heinicke, environmental health manager for the city, said the announcement does not change the city's current mosquito-control strategy and will not immediately prompt an aerial pesticide spraying campaign similar to the one launched in Dallas last week.
"I think the incident rate is still fairly low," he said. "It's just with the warm winter and the rains that we had earlier in the spring contributing to the earlier presence of mosquitoes this season, [we had] earlier exposure or potential for exposure."
When the spraying started, Dallas County's rate of neuroinvasive West Nile Virus - which is more likely to be fatal than the more common fever manifestation - was more than 70 percent. Only 30 percent of Collin County cases have been the disease's neuroinvasive form, Heinicke said.
"Statistics show about one in 150 people will develop the neuroinvasive disease, which is the more debilitating of the two diseases," he said. "But if they're wearing the insect repellent, making sure to minimize their activity between dusk and dawn and keeping up with the water on their property and working with neighbors to do that, the risk is not going to be as great."
Peggy Wittie, chief epidemiologist with the Collin County Health Care Services Department, said no deaths caused by West Nile Virus have occurred in the county since she started work for the health department four years ago, and it's possible that no West Nile deaths have ever occurred in the county, though records have not been thoroughly searched to find other possible deaths.
Despite the seriousness of yesterday's announcement, Wittie said both the density and frequency of the disease has started to decrease since Aug. 4. Instances of the disease were more geographically clustered and frequent during the period from July 12 to Aug. 3, she said.
Heinicke said all residents, especially the elderly and those with compromised immune systems, should take extra care to use insect repellent containing DEET to ward off potentially disease-carrying mosquitoes. The vast majority of patients infected in Plano said they do not routinely wear insect repellent when going outside, he said.
The city will continue ground-based spraying in areas where human cases of the virus have appeared and in areas known to have a high mosquito population, Heinicke said. Larvicide, which kills infant mosquitoes, is being applied to bodies of water where mosquitoes are likely to breed.
It is still important for property owners to drain sources of standing water that serve as hotbeds for mosquito breeding, Heinicke said.
"Not only are you protecting yourself and your family, but you're also being a good neighbor and protecting your neighbors," he said. "As long as you're being cautious, there's not really a major concern or major risk with going outside, but again: take those precautions."
The 75025 zip code wraps around the Plano-Allen border along Hedgcoxe Road and Custer Road and extends west and south to Legacy Drive and Coit Road.
Residents seeking information about West Nile Virus can call the city's informational hotline at 972-941-7180. For a map of neighborhoods that have been treated and other West Nile information, visit www.plano.gov/Health/Pages/WNV.aspx.
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