PICAYUNE — Controlling the mosquito population is the best way to help ensure residents are safe from the potentially deadly West Nile virus.

Recently the City of Picayune was awarded more than $80,000 to help purchase more supplies and equipment to help the city with its mosquito control program.

Sharon Sims, with the Department of Health in Jackson, came to Picayune to tell residents about arboviruses, or viruses carried by mosquitoes. Her main focus was on the West Nile virus. She also announced that the City of Picayune received $82,874 out of the $2.8 million appropriated for the 49 counties affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Each qualifying county and city received information on how to apply for the money. In Pearl River County, only Picayune had its grant application in on time for the money.

“It really is a shame that a lot of those places didn’t apply for it,” Sims said.

County Administrator Adrain Lumpkin said he got the packet to apply, but with too little time to turn it around.

“When I got the package, there was not much time on it,” Lumpkin said.

Lumpkin said he got the packet with less than a week left to turn it in.

An attempt to contact the City of Poplarville was unsuccessful.

Money awarded to Picayune will be used to control the mosquito population within the City of Picayune.

The first case of West Nile Virus in the United States was recorded in New York in 1999 and it spread from there, Sims said to an audience of two city residents, four city employees and the Picayune Item.

Worldwide, the first recorded case was diagnosed in 1937 near the Nile River, hence the virus’ name. The virus is believed to arrive in the Untied States via an infected bird or an infected mosquito in a shipment from overseas in, or prior to, 1999.

“It’s kind of like the egg and the chicken; you don’t know which one came first,” Sims said.

Mississippi got its first case in 2002 and the State of Washington diagnosed its first human case in 2006, Sims said.

People who have West Nile virus are not contagious to other people, Sims said.

“We are called dead end hosts. It doesn’t go any farther than that,” Sims said.

The Health Department conducts surveillance of the mosquito population and does testing on birds suspected to have died due to the virus. On July 1 of this year the Health Department will cease bird testing. The Health Department has found that mosquitoes are a better gauge of a local infestation since birds can fly farther than mosquitoes. Lack of funding brought an end to testing birds, Sims said. Dead bird reports still will be accepted via the hotline at 1-877-WST-NILE (978-6453).

Human testing will be offered free of charge to local physicians. The Health Department also offers horse testing. Horses are an intermediate host for the virus. Currently, there is a vaccine only for horses. A human vaccine is under development, Sims said. She expects scientists in Israel to come up with a human vaccine first since the majority of scientists working on a vaccine are located there.

Surveillance of mosquitoes is conducted by collecting mass amounts of mosquitoes in traps and separating them into pools by species. The collected species are ground up and the blood collected is tested for the virus, Sims said. There are about 58 different species of mosquito, but only one carries the virus.

The culprit for transmitting the West Nile virus is the Southern House mosquito, or Cx quinquefasciatus. It usually does not fly more than a mile during its two- to 100-day life span. However, mosquitoes have been known to hibernate in barns, sheds and other outlying buildings during the winter, prolonging that life span.

Signs of infection by West Nile virus usually appear within three to 15 days of being bitten by a mosquito carrying the virus. About 80 percent of people who contract the disease never show signs of infection. About 20 percent may show only mild symptoms. A smaller percentage of victims will come down with flu like symptoms, headache, nausea, and still get better. Out of that small percentage, one person may come down with fatal symptoms and die from the virus, Sims said.

However, some victims also suffer severe neurological damage when the virus takes the form of encephalitis. At least one person in Pearl River County has suffered that form of West Nile virus.

If contracted, there is no treatment for the virus. All doctors can do is treat the symptoms, Sims said.

To reduce the chance of infection residents can rid their yards of all standing water. In a pool of standing water, one female mosquito can lay an egg sack that contains 200 individual eggs, Sims said. A female mosquito can lay between 2,000 to 3,000 eggs in her lifetime. Females are the only ones to bite and draw blood. Blood is necessary for the mosquito to produce eggs, she said. Areas of moving water by the West Nile virus carrying mosquito for laying eggs.

Additional steps include clearing gutters of debris, using mosquito repellents when outside and using water treatments in water that can not be dumped out.

The best kind of repellent for people to use contains DEET. Any concentration will do, but lower concentrations should be applied more often. For small children Sims suggests using Avon Skin So Soft to repel mosquitoes.

“There’s so many things you can do in your own home to prevent breeding sites,” she said.

Biting activity of mosquitoes is 500 times greater during a full moon, Sims said. This is because the increased light makes mosquitoes think it is dawn or dusk, the time periods when they are most active, she said. Darker clothing also attracts mosquitoes.

The grant for Picayune was written by city employees Barbara McGrew, Daryl Smith and Chad Frierson.