The L.A. Daily News just can't get enough of the West Nile virus. In today's report, the paper notes that county officials are considering spraying pesticides from trucks in some neighborhoods.
I mean, makes sense, right? Hundreds of people have already been killed in L.A. cou... wait, what? Four people? Stop the presses.
No really. Stop the presses. Put something else on the front page.
To be fair, these figures sound a little more alarming: From Aug. 11 through Friday, the number of people in the county infected with the virus jumped from 32 to 81. Statewide, 249 confirmed human cases have been reported.
Officials estimate thousands of people have been infected, explaining that for every reported case, 15 to 30 people are infected but not tested.
"I computed a 32 percent increase statewide in less than 48 hours late last week," (Jack Hazelrigg, general manager of the Greater Los Angeles Vector Control District) said. "It's nearly doubling each week.
"If that is really the rate and it doesn't slow down, you are easily looking at almost 1,000 (confirmed) cases by mid-September, just in Los Angeles County alone."
Hazelrigg said he is considering using vector control trucks to spray "pyrethroid pesticides" in the air to kill adult mosquitoes.
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