Harris County Public Health Mosquito and Vector Control Division Emergency Response to Hurricane Harvey: Vector-Borne Disease Surveillance and Control

• Published in: Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association Vol. 36; no. 2s; pp. 15 - 27
• Main Authors: Vigilant, Maximea, Battle-Freeman, Cheryl, Braumuller, Kyndall C., Riley, Rebecca, Fredregill, Chris L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Mosquito Control Association 01.06.2020
• Subjects: Adulticides; Aquatic insects; Carbon dioxide; Disease control; Disease transmission; Drainage systems; Dumping; Education; Emergencies; Emergency preparedness; Emergency response; Flooding; Floods; Health services; Hurricanes; Infectious diseases; Landing; Medical laboratories; Mosquitoes; Ocean dumping; Pesticides; Public health; Rain; Rainfall; Spraying; Stalling; Surveillance; Tropical climate; Tropical depressions; Tropical storms; Vector-borne diseases; Vectors (Biology); Virology; West Nile virus; United States > US; mosquito control; mosquito surveillance; Disaster; flooding; Hurricane Harvey
• ISSN: 8756-971X; 1943-6270; 1943-6270
• DOI: 10.2987/19-6890.1

Hurricane Harvey made a landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast on August 25, 2017, stalling over Harris County as a tropical storm for 4 days (August 26–29), dumping approximately 127 cm of rain. This tremendous amount of rainfall overwhelmed the county's natural and man-made drainage systems, resulting in unprecedented widespread flooding. Immediately following, Harris County Public Health Mosquito and Vector Control Division conducted a countywide emergency vector control response by integrating surveillance, control, and education strategies. This included landing rate counts, mosquito and avian surveillance, arbovirus testing, ground-based ultra-low volume (ULV) and aerial pesticide spraying, and community outreach. The immediate response lasted for 4 wk through September, resulting in 774 landing rates, 49,342 ha treated by ground-based ULV, 242,811 ha treated by aerial ULV, 83,241 mosquitoes collected, 1,807 mosquito pools tested, and 20 education/outreach sessions. Recovery activities of 3 additional education/outreach events continued through October while surveillance and control activities returned to routine status.