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Mosquito-control

Mosquito control boards seeking more money from state

in Statewide/Top Headlines by

Members of local mosquito control districts are in Tallahassee Wednesday to ask lawmakers for $3.8 million in next year’s budget to fight the two-winged insects. The Florida Mosquito Control Association held a press conference in the Capitol to drum up support, appearing with state Rep. Matt Caldwell, chairman of the House Government Accountability Committee. The problem: The state’s relatively warm winter means it’s likely there will be more active mosquitoes and another outbreak of Zika virus infections. “With the outbreak of Zika we saw…

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Rick Scott boosts state spending in fight against Zika

in Statewide/Top Headlines by

Gov. Rick Scott has injected another $10 million in state money into the fight to contain Zika, voicing frustration at Washington’s failure to act. Fresh off meetings with congressional leaders in the nation’s capital, Scott told reporters in Fort Myers, “It’s hard to believe they’re not focused on this. We’ve got to take care of our pregnant women and their babies.” Scott used his emergency executive authority to shift the money from Florida’s General Revenue Fund into the Zika program.…

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Pinellas officials say they are combatting mosquitoes, Zika

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday announced a new case of Zika in Pinellas, bringing the total cases in the county to 10. The nine cases that had already been identified as of Monday by the Department of Health were all travel-related. The 10th was not. It was locally transmitted, meaning that mosquitoes in the area are infected with the virus. Zika disease is caused by the Zika virus, which is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito,…

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Pinellas slated for extra money to fight Zika

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

Pinellas County Mosquito Control will receive a bit more than $106,000 in supplemental state funds for the month of August to combat the spread of the Zika virus. The funds are part of Gov. Rick Scott’s executive order that allocated $26.2 million in state funds for Zika preparedness, prevention and response in Florida. Each month, the risk across the state will be re-evaluated and funds may be reallocated. The funding award comes as Pinellas County Mosquito Control continues to aggressively…

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As Zika looms, U.S. health officials worry about the neighbors

in Apolitical/Top Headlines by

Saron Wyatt pointed to the secluded end of her small street in Houston’s impoverished Fifth Ward, where a mound of old tires keeps popping up. Always a trashy nuisance, it’s now a growing danger. Tires collect water and become prime breeding grounds for mosquitoes — especially the ones that spread Zika virus disease and other tropical mosquito-borne illnesses. Wyatt, a mother of five, doesn’t know where the tires are coming from. But she’s worried about it, and so are health…

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Living with people they bite, Zika mosquitoes hard to fight

in Apolitical/Top Headlines by

Mosquito-control workers are asking automotive retailers to get rid of old tires in the Florida Panhandle, lining up laboratories to test the insects for the Zika virus in New Orleans, and preparing to hunt down and destroy mosquito breeding sites in neighborhoods of infected people in coastal Georgia. These are among the advance steps that the heads of mosquito control agencies in U.S. cities and counties say they are taking to combat the Zika virus ahead of the typical springtime…

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