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West Nile Virus: Tips on Protection Yourself From Mosquitoes

Since there is no vaccine to protect against West Nile Virus, prevention centers on keeping mosquitoes (the creatures that spread the disease) from biting in the first place. Buck Tilton, M.S., the director of curriculum for the Wilderness Medicine Institute and author of Don’t Get Bitten: The Dangers of Things that Bite or Sting (The Mountaineers Books, $6.95 paperback) shares these tips.

• Wear clothing thick enough or tightly woven enough to prevent penetration of the mosquito’s biting apparatus. Wear long sleeves and long pants to reduce the skin mosquitoes have access to. Wear light-colored clothing: khaki, etc. Mosquitoes seem to be partial to dark colors, especially blue.
• Apply permethrin, a safe insecticide, to clothing
• Apply an insect repellent to exposed skin
• Sleep under mosquito netting or inside tents with mosquito netting
• Avoid exposure during prime mosquito-biting time, usually dawn and dusk
• Avoid mosquito-prone areas: near standing water, dense vegetation, and areas known to be thick with mosquitoes

What Doesn’t Work

Neither ultrasonic devices nor repelling wristbands have proven to repel mosquitoes. Tests run with more than 100 drugs, including vitamin C, vitamin B1 (thiamine), and other vitamins failed to reveal that anything was repelled. The Food and Drug Administration has stated that all claims for products to repel insects if taken orally are “either false, misleading, or unsupported by scientific data.”

Who is Most Likely to be Bitten

• Mosquitoes bite men more often than they bite women.
• Mosquitoes bite adults more often than they bite children.
• Mosquitoes bite overweight people more often than they bite slim people.

How to Use DEET-Based Repellents, Safely and Effectively

• Read the label carefully before use. Use a concentration of no more than 30 percent. Higher concentrations provide longer protection but not better protection.
  Apply repellent sparingly. Heavy application and saturation are unnecessary. Repeat applications only as necessary.
• Do not apply over cuts, wounds, or irritated skin, and keep it out of eyes and mouth. Discontinue if skin irritation develops.
• Avoid inhaling the aerosol and spray products that contain DEET.
• Avoid getting DEET on plastic products. It may cause deterioration of the plastic.
  After mosquito exposure ends, wash skin where DEET was applied.
• Do not apply to children’s hands or allow children to handle the product. Kids will smear the repellent into their eyes and mouths. No specific data relates to the use of DEET on children, but the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a concentration of no more than 10 percent on children ages two to twelve years.
• Avoid use on children under two, say some experts, but others say DEET is okay on children under two if it is used no more than once a day.
• After mosquito exposure ends, give little kids a bath.

Adapted from Don’t Get Bitten: The Dangers of Things that Bite or Sting by Buck Tilton, M.S., The Mountaineers Books, $6.95 (paperback).

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