New York mayor announces 3-year, $21 million Zika plan

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and members of the city’s health departments announced a 3-year, $21 million plan to address the threat of Zika virus infection during a press conference yesterday.

“This is an emerging situation and as everyone has seen in recent weeks, new information keeps coming out,” de Blasio said. “That’s why we have to have our own capacity to assess the situation and to make sure we have all the latest information to protect people against a threat that is emerging as we speak and evolving as we speak.”

Bill de Blasio

The city’s Zika response plan has been in development since February, de Blasio said, and will cover all five boroughs. It includes three major components:

mosquito reduction through targeted citywide prevention efforts;
disease detection and testing, which will include doubling the number of mosquito traps currently employed by the city; and
public information efforts through the upcoming “Fight Back NYC” education campaign.

The mayor also noted that 51 new exterminators, inspectors, lab analysts and other workers will be hired by the health department. The full effort will be built upon decades of insect control infrastructure developed during West Nile virus prevention, according to Mary Bassett, MD, commissioner of New York’s health and mental hygiene department.

“Public health labs play a very important role, especially when tests aren’t commercially available, which is the case that we have in Zika now,” Bassett said. “Our focus right now is on building up the infrastructure that we already have in place so that we can increase the testing of mosquitoes — which will allow us to determine if our local mosquitoes are carrying the virus — and increasing our mosquito control.”

She and de Blasio said there have been 40 cases of Zika virus infection detected within the city, but all cases contracted the disease while abroad. Although Aedes aegypti, the primary vector of Zika virus, has not been found in the city, the coming mosquito season will increase the prevalence of a related species commonly found in New York, A. albopictus. This species could potentially acquire and spread the virus, they said, and will require proper surveillance and prevention efforts.

“We have an extraordinary public health department, and it is tried and tested,” de Blasio said. “I want to emphasize that we do not see a scenario in this city or in this country where they’ll be a widespread outbreak. But that does not for a moment stop us from wanting to address even more limited problems.” – by Dave Muoio

Photo Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office

Zika Resource Center

New York mayor announces 3-year, $21 million Zika plan