11 Farm Workers May Have Malaria; Lake Hodges Report Is First of Year

Eleven migrant farm workers in North County may have contracted the first cases of malaria in San Diego County this year, according to preliminary results of a test conducted Wednesday by the Department of Health Services.

The results, received just hours after county health officials conducted tests on a dozen workers living in an encampment between Lake Hodges and the San Dieguito Reservoir, showed that at least 10 of the 12 may have the disease. The health officials were led to the 12 men by another worker who is believed to have the disease.

3 Still in the Hospital

All of those tested were taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas. Three remain hospitalized; the others were treated and released, said Michael Barden, a spokesman for the hospital.

Health officials said the disease is usually not fatal and, under normal conditions, can be treated over a period of two weeks. Historically, most of the cases of malaria reported in San Diego County have been mild strains.

The first of the 11 suspected cases was diagnosed Tuesday afternoon when a doctor from the Encinitas Medical Group phoned in results of a test done on a worker suffering from the symptoms of the disease, which include a high temperature, chills, headaches and profuse sweating.

A team of health officials was dispatched to the Encinitas complex to find out whether any others may have contracted the disease. The worker told them of the others.

“There are normally 2 to 3 dozen malaria cases in the county each year,” Donald G. Ramras, the chief county health officer, said in the statement. “The origin of infection can almost always be traced to a source outside the country. The significant thing about these cases is the fact that it appears the men may have been exposed while living here in this county.”

Authorities Not Alarmed

But health officials urged county residents not to be alarmed if they are bitten by mosquitoes, which spread the disease. They noted that, because the area is isolated, there is little chance that many others would have been exposed to the disease.

“We do, however, urge residents to avoid the area from Lake Hodges Dam to 2 miles downstream,” said Gary Stephany, chief of the department’s Environmental Health Services division. There is “the possibility of exposure to mosquitoes carrying the malaria organism,” Stephany said.

Stephany said the county will spray the Lake Hodges area to stem the mosquito population. He added that such control measures are difficult because mosquito-control vehicles have a hard time operating in the region.

The last cluster of related malaria cases was in August, 1986, when 11 cases were reported among workers living in squatter camps east of Carlsbad’s Agua Hedionda Lagoon. Health officials linked that outbreak to the mosquitoes in the swampy inlet.

County officials said residents can combat the malaria outbreak by emptying containers filled with water because stagnant water is often where mosquitoes pick up the parasites that transmit the disease. Such containers include buckets, trash cans, old tires and children’s wading pools.