Confirmed human cases of the West Nile Virus have continued to grow throughout Fort Worth, but as of today no ground sprays have been scheduled in the 76109 zip code.
Portions of the 76244 and 76137 zip codes, on the city’s northwest side, are being sprayed this week, Diane Covey, the public information director for the city’s code and compliance department, said in a press release Monday.
Ground sprays in 76137 were also made over the weekend. Areas of 76104, near downtown, were sprayed last week, Covey said Friday.
As of Monday night, 68 human cases of the virus have been confirmed in Fort Worth. Four deaths inside Tarrant County have resulted from the virus, the highest number since seven people died from the virus in 2006, according to the numbers released Monday by the county health department. Human cases of the virus have been confirmed inside the 109, but no positive mosquito pools have been identified within the zip code.
Positive pools have been identified inside 76115, just east of the 109, and 76107, just north of the 109, according to county data.
“We work in partnership with Tarrant County Health,” Covey said. “They’ve identified clusters of areas. They use other information such as date of onset. They have a number of levels of criteria before they identify of cluster.”
Covey assured if any ground sprays were made inside the 109, or any other areas of Fort Worth, the residents would have plenty of notice. Door-to-door fliers were sent to more than 4,000 homes in preparation for this past weekend’s sprays. The city also invests many resources into an extensive, comprehensive outreach education program, she said.
Aerial sprays for the virus were made across some areas of Dallas earlier this month. Before spraying, Fort Worth consulted with the Center for Disease Control and the Tarrant County Health Department and all three parties agreed ground spraying would be the most effective way to handle the city’s situation, Covey said. All sprays, including the ones being made this week, have been done between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m.
For more information on the virus as well as ways to prevent it, visit www.fortworthtexas.gov/westnilevirus.
