Hawaii’s governor David Ige declared a state of emergency for mosquito-borne illnesses on Sunday, including Zika and dengue fever. The latter has been an especially urgent concern, with over 250 confirmed cases of dengue reported during the current outbreak.
The Associated Press reports there have been no reported cases of local Zika transmission in Hawaii. However, the first case of infant brain damage reported in the United States came from Hawaii, where a child with microcephaly was born to a woman who lived in Brazil early in her pregnancy.
Six residents of Hawaii are known to have contracted Zika during travels to the outbreak areas. In addition to the South American and Caribbean countries noted as sources of Zika infection, the virus is active on Pacific islands including American Samoa, which enjoys regular air travel with Hawaii.
“We are doing everything we can to be prepared, to be proactive, to prevent vector borne diseases here in Hawaii,” said Governor Ige, when issuing his emergency order.
The AP reports Hawaii is “rushing to build up its mosquito control staff after a December report from the Centers for Disease Control highlighted deficiencies in the state’s vector control department,” since Hawaii “slashed its moquito control and entomology staff during the economic downturn.”
“We are actively hiring new staff, an entomologist that will be dedicated to Hawaii Island that will be starting next week as well as additional communications and vector control staff,” said state Department of Health director Virginia Pressler, after the governor’s emergency order released more funding for the department.
Another aspect of the emergency order gives mosquito control officials the ability to spray property with pesticides, even if the owner objects. There has been much controversy about pesticide use in Hawaii over recent years, including allegations that agriculture companies are spraying too many pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides on their crops.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) described dengue as a “public health emergency on Hawaii Island” and said there was an “emerging threat of a possible Zika crisis,” when asking for swift approval of additional health funding for his state in Senate Appropriations Committee hearings last week.
The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports the state’s other Sen. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) has criticized Governor Ige for being too slow to declare a state of emergency over the dengue fever outbreak.
John Rappaport was on coast to coast am the other night discussing this topic. I suggest listening to it.
I recently had the opportunity to interview a Zika/Dengue carrying mosquito and this was what he had to say:
Bzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzz zzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
(Translation: The flight time between Hawaii and Brazil is a real m**********r. It’s so exhausting.)
Bzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz zzzz.
(By the time we get there we’re practically dead on our wings.)
Bzzzzz zzzzzzzz zzz.
(If your a lucky mosquito, you can hop a ride on a human airliner. Frequent Flyer Miles. Wooohoooooo!)
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz zzz bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
(I don’t know what the hell the humans are talking about, none of our mosquito kids have microcephaly. This is a blatant attempt to libel all mosquito-kind. Oh, watch out! Their spraying again! cough! cough! cough!)
And that concluded my interview with the mosquito. Back to you at the NewsCenter Puppetface Commiehair.
I wonder. What is the air speed velocity of an unladen mosquito? Could one of them fly from the coast of South America all the way to Hawaii?
I believe Hawaii is a breeding ground for a lot of things. Fuku, GMO’s, Chemtrails, now Zika aka the above mentioned.
The point I was trying to make, in my roundabout dumbass way of making it, is that the Zika virus cannot be indigenous to Hawaii for the simple fact that there is no way for the mosquito’s that carry the virus to get there.
Unless they’ve been there all along all the way back 40 million years when the land mass of the planet was all one thing. In which case, every Hawaiian native would be suffering from Microcephaly. Since the size of their skulls seem to rule that out, I have no choice except to disregard that hypothesis.
Then again, if you’ve seen some of the sizes of the ancient skulls dug out of the ground, maybe all us humans are suffering from some sort of microcephaly.
Interesting concept. Shrunken Heads. Who’s to say they were shrunken after they died?
Anyways, What is the air speed velocity of an unladen mosquito?
Is that a North American mosquito or a South American mosquito?