[Apswel] West Nile Warning

[West Elementary School Mailing List]

Dear Parents,

We received the following message from the Andover Public Health
Director. Some general precautions you might want to take include
wearing long sleeve shirts when working or playing outside, staying away
from wooded areas or those with pools of standing water, and making
generous use of mosquito repellant, particularly during early morning
times and at dusk. As you can see from the message, there have been no
specific recommendations from the health director to otherwise restrict
daytime activities. 

Charles Friel, Principal

Hello All, 
It is said that public health threats occur most often on the Friday
afternoon of a long weekend; today fulfills that adage. I have been
advised by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that a crow
collected from River Street in Ballardvale last week has tested positive
for West Nile Virus. I was expecting this result as I collected the bird
for testing. The call was that there were 2 crows, one dead and one
alive but ill; the dead one was too far decomposed to have tested, but
the live bird was barely moving and did not put up a fight when I
collected it.
I will be contacting the Mosquito Control District to have the catch
basins in the area treated again, and to have them review what else we
might wish to do. I will also be issuing a press release, and will
review the website and TV message boards to see if anything should be
changed. I am not recommending any spraying at the moment, but rather
increased vigilance and awareness.
I'll keep you informed as I know more. 
Thomas Carbone 
Public Health Director 
Town of Andover 
978-623-8295 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.aps1.net/pipermail/apswel/attachments/20070904/786dfffd/attachment.htm