St Roch Cem Flowers 1979 Louisiana

This 1979 photograph was taken inside St. Roch’s Cemetery, New Orleans, LA., which acted as an urban-situated breeding site for Aedes aegypti, and Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitos.

Both of these mosquito genera are known vectors for the arboviral pathogens responsible for Dengue fever, and St. Louis encephalitis respectively. Keeping close tabs on potential mosquito vector populations is essential in maintaining control over a possible epidemiologic outbreak of vector-borne diseases such as Dengue fever, malaria, or St. Louis encephalitis virus. Wherever there may be standing collections of water, these hearty creatures, which are for the most part disseminated throughout the world’s tropical climates, may then breed, thereby, becoming dangerous public health hazards.