Mosquito-born transmission of the virus is anticipated in the United States, particularly in the Gulf states. Watch video
Mike and Emily Spear have all six of their children on mosquito patrol, because No. 7 is on the way.
Oldest to youngest, 10-year-old Theodore, Bernadette, Adelaide, Teresa, Veronica and Phoebe (almost 2) know to report holes in window screens and dump out any standing water on the family's South Whitehall Township property. Their pool's not an issue because it's chlorinated and the filter's running, but the bird bath gets a little chlorine for good measure.
The concern is Zika, which causes microcephaly in newborns, an incurable condition in which the head is abnormally small.
The virus is bound to be on the rise this summer in the United States, a St. Luke's University Health Network infectious disease expert said. And the Spears don't want to take any chances with Emily due Sept. 29 and eastern Pennsylvania within the range of the Aedes mosquitoes known to spread Zika.
Mike and Emily Spear are seen with their six children at home in South Whitehall Township. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com) "I hope it's overkill," said Emily Spear, who has been trying to wear long sleeves when possible and has mosquito repellents she intends to use sparingly. "I hope Zika never makes it to this area. That would be wonderful."
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of last week counted about 600 cases of Zika disease nationwide. Pennsylvania and New Jersey had each confirmed 19 of the cases, and the latter reported the continental United States' first baby with microcephaly born to a woman infected with the virus.
Nearly all of the domestic infections of Zika were acquired abroad, with the exception of about a dozen transmitted sexually from male to female, said Dr. Jeffrey A. Jarhe, senior vice president for medical and academic affairs at St. Luke's and an infectious disease specialist.
"With the arrival of the warmer months that we now have, it is fully anticipated that we are going to have person-to-person spread in the United States" through mosquitoes, Jahre said.
Eastern Pennsylvania and much of New Jersey lie within the range of the species of mosquito that spread Zika -- Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, the CDC says. Robert Duryea, an entomologist with the Warren County Mosquito Commission, was on the hunt for those types Friday in the Phillipsburg area, where A. albopictus -- commonly called the Asian tiger mosquito -- has been confirmed.
Dell Buckley, laboratory field assistant for the Warren County Mosquito Commission, empties standing water on an abandoned property June 3, 2016, in Phillipsburg. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com) He and laboratory field assistant Dell Buckley collected tires, adding to their haul of about 200 so far this year, checked traps and visited abandoned properties. Buckley dumped mosquitofish, from the genus Gambusia, into a pool in town. New Jersey raises them at its hatchery in Hackettstown, and Warren County has dispatched about 40,000 to-date in 2016. The idea is that they eat the larvae before they hatch into a daytime-biting menace.
"Where some other species will only bite you when the sun starts going down -- they don't like the sun -- the albopictus will bite you all day long," Duryea said.
Jahre tempers his concern, locally, for Zika in two primary ways. One, the Lehigh Valley faces less of a threat thanks to the colder winters than warmer states -- think Texas east to Florida.
"The states that are going to be, by anyone's estimation, primarily affected are the ones that we call the Gulf states, where the temperature and other factors are enhanced breeding ground for these type of mosquitoes," he said.
The other reason for optimism in the United States is that the Aedes mosquitoes also spread the dengue and chikungunya viruses, neither of which has ever gained a foothold as a widespread threat domestically, Jahre said. He credits better mosquito control than parts of the world where these diseases represent a greater threat, along with simple things like better screens on houses and more homes with air-conditioning that tend to be tightly sealed up.
"Those factors alone make it less likely that we're going to have the same kind of impact, but it doesn't mean that we can't have a significant outbreak," Jahre said. "There is that possibility."
Travel remains a concern to Jahre.
St. Luke's is telling its patients who are pregnant or who may become pregnant to avoid traveling to areas of the world with a high incidence rate of Zika. If they must go, they should use insect repellant approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"If you're a male that's going to these areas and your partner is of child-bearing age they do have to take the same precautions," Jahre said, adding that a barrier method of birth control is also advised for a certain length of time.
CDC officials during a #CombatZika chat last week on Twitter discussed how long to continue preventative measures.
.@cfahooligan Women should wait at least 8 wks after symptoms start before trying to get pregnant. https://t.co/INk30yRIBJ #CombatZika
-- CDC (@CDCgov) May 31, 2016
Right @cfahooligan, men should wait at least 6 months after symptoms start before trying to get their partner pregnant. #CombatZika
-- CDC (@CDCgov) May 31, 2016
Jahre also holds out hope for better testing of Zika infections. OraSure Technologies in Bethlehem is working on a test based on its OraQuick platform that confirm the disease in minutes instead of the current days-long wait for results.
Global fight against Zika has ally in Bethlehem
Four out of five people who develop Zika virus show no symptoms, so they don't know they're infected. Those who do fall ill suffer mild symptoms such as fever, joint pain, rash and conjuctivitis (red eyes) -- all of which can result from a host of other causes.
"The big issue is this developmental abnormality," Jahre said of microcephaly, "and that is tragic and devastating."
Brazil, expected to greet visitors from around the world as its hosts the Summer Olympics scheduled Aug. 5-21 in Rio de Janeiro, reports some 5,000 babies born with the defect since the outbreak began there last year, compared to 150 in an average year, according to Jahre.
Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.