With mosquito season drawing closer — and the renewed threat of more deadly West Nile virus cases — dozens of congressmen yesterday called on President Clinton to appoint a national czar to fight the disease.
Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-Queens) spearheaded the effort and has gotten 67 members of Congress — plus Dr. Mohammad Akhter, the executive director of the American Public Health Association — to back the request for a national coordinator.
“These disease-carrying mosquitoes do not recognize state lines, so we must be prepared to attack them on a regional or even a national level,” Crowley warned.
He asked for $5 million in federal money to start the initiative.
The West Nile virus, transmitted to humans and other animals through infected mosquitoes, claimed the lives of seven people, several horses and thousands of birds in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut last year.
Health officials sprayed the region with the insecticide malathion, which can be toxic to humans, from trucks and helicopters to stop the spread, but it appears it may not have worked.
Researchers from the federal Centers for Disease Control warned last week that genetic traces of the virus were detected in pools of hibernating mosquitoes at Fort Totten in Queens.
Deputy Mayor Joseph Lhota said the city administration would welcome federal cash — but not a federally appointed coordinator.
“We’ve had a drug czar, and ever since then, drug usage has gone up. We don’t have a very good track record with czars,” Lhota said.