SE Michigan Mayor Worried About Yellow Fever

WARREN, MI — To be clear, there have been no reported cases of the mosquito-borne illness yellow fever in the Macomb County community of Warren. Mayor Jim Fouts wants to keep it that way.

And though yellow fever might not get a health-robbing grip on you — yet, Fouts worries — a mosquito pool in Warren tested positive for West Nile Virus earlier this month. Mosquitos carrying the Zika virus haven’t traveled this far north, but Fouts isn’t cavalier about it, either.

Residents who don’t drain standing water — preferred habitat for mosquitoes to congregate and breed — can expect a ticket.

“I’m worried about Zika, I’m worried about West Nile, I’m worried about Chikungunya and I think we have to begin to look at the potential for yellow fever sweeping the United States within the next year or two,” Fouts told WWJ Radio. “Yellow fever is even more serious — 20 to 50 percent of the people who contract yellow fever die.”

Warren suffered mightily under West Nile virus in the early 2000s, Fouts wrote this month in a Facebook post after the test pools showed mosquitoes in Warren carried the virus. According to Michigan Department of Health of Human services, Michigan led the nation in 2002 with 51 people who died of complications of West Nile virus.

“Many years ago when I was on the city council, we didn’t have West Nile and then we got it,” Fouts told WWJ. “And if you remember, Warren was one of the top cities in Michigan to have several fatalities from West Nile.”

Genetic modification of the mosquito is the best way to permanently wipe out the threat of mosquito-borne illnesses, but failing that, eliminating standing pools of water is the next-best line of defense, he wrote.

Fouts said in another Facebook post that he is “ordering a stepped up attack on mosquito breeding places in Warren.”

“We will (as previously planned) be treating all catch basins with mosquito briquettes August (through) September. In addition we will be inspecting areas for standing water and not only will we be treating those places but we will issue fines. That also includes city parks. This is a more serious threat to Warren residents than Zika. ... We will have zero tolerance on mosquito breeding places.”

That includes swimming pools that have been drained for the season but have standing water, or any other structures on private property that have standing water.

“We have zero tolerance for anyone with a swimming pool or large water area with standing water. We are going to issue major ticket violations,” Fouts told the radio station. “We are going to treat this as a potential epidemic.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says there is no known cure for yellow fever, which can lead to severe liver disease with bleeding. It is mostly found in the tropical and subtropical areas of South America and Africa.

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