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It’s a measure of how far we have come in fighting this disease — and why we need to continue the regional system we have developed to kill encephalitis mosquitoes while they are in the larval stage.
Thirty or 40 years ago, if you would have mentioned mosquito control, the image that would have come to mind was trucks going through city neighborhoods, spraying a mist of insecticide.
But that old-fashioned way of dealing with mosquitoes didn’t get the most dangerous ones, caused too much damage to trees and plants and was largely ineffective in the long run.
Local officials 30 years ago decided that it made no sense to spend time and resources killing ordinary pest mosquitoes. Instead, they decided to launch a campaign to get rid of the breeding grounds for mosquitoes. That meant getting rid of old tires that fill with water and provide for an excellent breeding ground for mosquito larvae. It also meant filling tree holes and using chemicals to kill mosquito larvae.
Local medical staff, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and representatives of the La Crosse County Health Department developed an effective control program for the encephalitis mosquitoes. And it worked.
In a story in Saturday’s Tribune, county mosquito-control officer Dave Geske remembered 3-year-old Dawn Lyn Torgerson of De Soto, Wis., who died from the disease in 1978 — the last area child to die from the disease.
“People need to remember this little girl,” Geske said. “She saved lives. Hundreds of people were spared from this trauma.”
La Crosse area officials, medical staff and other scientists have developed a system that truly works for public health. That’s an achievement worth considering.
