By Carrie James
He was the second person in Nassau County to die of West Nile virus this year. The other, Adeline Bisignano, 71, also of East Meadow, died Oct. 26, according to county Department of Health officials.
Now, both victims' families have discussed filing a lawsuit against the county because it did not spray against infected mosquitoes.
My father's dead because they didn't spray, said Charles Fink in published reports. We're definitely going to file a suit.
Fink, who most likely contracted the disease through a mosquito bite, started showing signs of the illness in mid-September with flu-like symptoms. Soon, though, the family took Fink to the hospital because of a high temperature, and within days, doctors had confirmed Fink was infected with West Nile virus.
The second victim, Bisignano, contracted the disease a few days later and was also hospitalized. Two other people in Nassau County got the disease, but have since recovered.
Bisignano's husband, Frank, said he too had contacted an attorney to discuss a possible lawsuit. He was reported to say, If the county had taken precautions beforehand, maybe my wife would have been alive today. It could have been avoided.
Cynthia Brown, spokesperson for the Nassau County Department of Health, said the county sympathizes with the two families who lost their loved ones. The decision not to spray, however, was not one made lightly.
Since West Nile Virus first showed itself in 1999, Nassau County has beefed up its mosquito control, regularly checking more than 40 test sites throughout the county.
We have a pretty good idea of where to check, and we have been doing it regularly, especially in the last three years, Brown said. We dip for larvae regularly, and if we find them, we larvacide so they don't become mosquitoes. We try to get them before them become mosquitoes.
They also set traps to collect samples of mosquitoes in the area. They sort the mosquitoes and send the possibly infected samples to Albany for state testing. Once a sample is identified as positive, Brown said the health department concentrates on that area. This year, the county had 27 positive pools, or samples of mosquitoes, out of more than 600 collected.
What we have found is that while we get the pools, they don't contain high numbers, she said. The state wants pools of 10 mosquitoes, and we would have to put out two or three traps just to get that number. There was no need to spray.
Beside not finding the numbers of mosquitoes that would warrant spraying, Brown said weather conditions played a big part in whether the county could spray.
In order for the spray to be effective, we would have to spray when the mosquitoes are most active, which is at dawn and dusk, she said. Next thing, it has to be over 60 degrees, and the wind has to be less than 10 miles an hour. Also, a truck spray will only go about 150 feet, so if the property is 200 feet deep it won't go all the way back.
