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Formally Known as: Washington County Inter-Local Mosquito Abatement Agency
Welcome to the home page of SMACD.
This webpage is to inform the citizens of Washington County (as well as any person interested in mosquito abatement) on the efforts of your mosquito abatement distict.
Mosquito control is a well needed entity for Washington County. As early as the first settlers in this
area, mosquitoes have not only been a pest, but a health concern to the people within the Washington County area.
Malaria in Utah
Utah seems an unlikely place as a malarious state yet this state has had a history of malaria as a common disease among the early Mormon settlers in Washington County. In the warm climate of the Virgin River region of southern Utah for twenty years after its settlement malaria was considered quite common and quinine was used as a treatment. Many of these people had come from the malarious regions of the Midwest where the disease was very common. Thus some had had the disease and were carriers.Two good vectors were common in Washington County, Anopheles francescanus and freeborni. There were other sources of infection as returned missionaries from the southern states suffered attacks of malaria after returing home. Before 1900 the disease in Utah was designated as Ague, Chills and Fever, Fever and Augue, as the true cause of Malaria was not determined until the turn of the century. Apparently sporadic outbreaks occurred in other parts of the state. Anopheles freeborni being the prime vector as franciscanus appears to be restricted to Washington County. An. freeborni is a common mosquito throughout the state.
One outbreak was reported in the Salt Lake Valley in the 1880s resulting in one death. Quinine was administered to suspected cases. Despite this there is no medical record of this outbreak. In April, 1947, a vivax infection was reported in a two year old child who had never been out of the state. From the period 1943-1945 almost 600 cases of malaria were reported from Utah. This incidence was not caused by local transmission, but was due to veterans of WWII returning from malarious areas. Many were sent to local hospitals, chief among which was Bushnell General Hospital in Brigham City where many were treated. There is no record of any of these cases resulting in a local spread of the disease.
Due to mosquito control efforts throughout the state An. freeborni has become relatively rare in mosquito abatement districts. An. freeborni and francescanus are still present in Washington County where no established control exists. However, due to urban sprawl most of the mosquito producing areas there have been eliminated. It is unlikely that locally transmitted malaria will occur again in Utah.