Topics:

• Tobacco Free Coalition
• West Nile Encephalitis

  Tobacco Free Coalition

  The Pike County Tobacco Free Coalition was awarded a $20,000 grant for tobacco prevention activities. The money was awarded by the Pennsylvania Tobacco Prevention Network and funded by the Pennsylvania State Health Department. The Coalition is made up of local agencies including Penn State Cooperative Extension, Pike County Drug and Alcohol Commission, The State Health Department, American Cancer Society, Pike County Planning and Human Development and Delaware Valley High School. The Coalition sponsored training for 50 Delaware Valley High School students in the Teens against Tobacco Use (TATU) program. The students were divided into 10 teams and visited 53 elementary classrooms, grade 2-5, giving presentations with a tobacco free message. The teens act as role models for the younger children to reinforce the positive aspects of being tobacco free and to help children understand that most teens do not smoke. Through the Coalition’s efforts the student handbook at Delaware Valley High School was changed. Students who are caught smoking now have the option of attending a cessation program rather than being suspended. The Coalition also bought signs for the Delaware Valley campus to remind students and adults that the athletic fields are tobacco free as well as the school buildings. The grant has been renewed for 2000-01 so the Coalition can continue working on reducing tobacco related illness and death in Pike County.

  West Nile Encephalitis
  

  In August and September 1999, news spread quickly concerning a West Nile Encephalitis outbreak in New York City and the surrounding area. That was the first time this virus had been documented in the Western Hemisphere. In Governor Ridge’s 2000-01 budget, included was $9.8 million in new funding to prevent and alleviate any potential public health effects the West Nile virus (WNV) might have on the citizens of the Commonwealth.

  The Pike County Commissioners recruited the help of Cooperative Extension and requested that the Pike County office act as the coordinating agency for the countywide program. The program had two main focuses, that of surveillance and if needed, control. A preliminary grant of $15,000 was received to fund a surveillance program. When a positive mosquito pool was identified in close proximity to Pike County, additional funds of $102,000 were requested and received in case control measures needed to be taken. To meet the increasing needs of the program two field technicians were hired to be the actual “hands-on” workers for the program. Their main responsibility was to visit possible sites, meet with property owners and to set and monitor light and gravid traps. Samples were then sent to an analysis lab to determine if these mosquitoes carried the WNV. Samples were taken from all townships in Pike County and from many of the residential communities. Over 400 samples were taken in Pike County. They also worked closely with the National Park Service to determine areas to set up traps within the Park and with the regional DEP in Swiftwater. Additionally, summer camps and sewer plants were visited to investigate possible breeding sites. By the end of the mosquito breeding season, most waste water treatment plants had been visited and the operators of these facilities had been educated in regards to the prevention of mosquito breeding. When the program started in April 2000, it was thought that only one species of mosquito, the Culex pipiens, carried the virus. To date, there are at least 13 types of mosquitoes that have been identified as being able to carry WNV. By early fall WNV was also identified as being found in crows in PA and pools of mosquitoes were identified as positive specimens in about 19 counties in Pennsylvania. One location in Pike yielded positive mosquitoes in mid October. Control measures had been taken at that location since mid-summer and the DEP came to Pike to help larvicide again after the positive results.