Short Bites Monthly

Your digest for December 2023.

The image features a hand holding a smartphone displaying an insect, with text reading "December Update" prominently featured.

Short Bites Monthly ensures that our data as a public health agency remains transparent to the public and to people who are interested in our mission.

The image features the phrase "IN YOUR COMMUNITY" alongside colorful house icons against a light background.

Outreach Efforts

  • This year was one for the books! Before we all head home for the holidays, check out our 2023 Outreach Efforts in the graph below:
outreach statistics
Image of 2023 Outreach Efforts
  •  The biggest highlight of 2023 is our Transparency Certificate of Excellence award, which was given to us by the Special District Leadership Foundation (SDLF).
  • The SDLF recognized our District’s outstanding efforts to promote transparency and good governance with residents and other stakeholders.
Four people pose together with a certificate outside a building, featuring a U.S. flag in the background.
Image of District Trustees and District Manager with the Transparency Certificate of Excellence
text, chalk board

Community Science

  • Not only did we reach 1,785 students this year, but we were able to map out where Aedes mosquito eggs were present.
  • These results are important to our Surveillance and Operations departments who monitor and control mosquitoes in your community. See results below.
The map shows oviposition data for Aedes mosquito eggs, indicating their presence (orange) or absence (purple) from October 2-22, 2023.
Image of a 2023 oviposition data collection
The chart shows mosquito presence and absence results using egg paper and water samples, with higher detection in egg paper.
Image of 2023 G.R.I.D. egg paper and water sample results

Digital Communication

  • This year was a great one for fine tuning our disease response plan.
  • From press releases, to enhanced neighborhood support, to enhanced trapping, to notifying the public about disease risk in their neighborhood, our District worked tirelessly to serve our residents.
A woman speaks to two attendees at an informational session about mosquito prevention, with pamphlets and a display board present.
Image of Director of Communications answering resident questions post presentation
  •  In lighter and educational news, every holiday season, we try to create a holiday song with the world’s most famous mosquito, Ada Eez.
  • This year, she appears in our holiday video, Jingle Bell Rock: Mosquito Edition.

Our Gift to You: A Mosquito Holiday Playlist

The image features text that reads "IN DISEASE CONTROL & MONITORING" beside an illustration of a microscope with a virus graphic.

We continue to focus on maintaining essential vector surveillance including mosquito trap routes, arbovirus testing, providing weekly data to the District, and maintaining the mosquito fish and mosquito colonies.

A person in a lab coat examines a sample under a microscope, wearing gloves and using a notebook for data recording.
Image of our Assistant Vector Ecologist analyzing mosquito species trap count.

Data Collection

The image shows a map with several blue circles indicating points of interest or data in the southeastern part of Los Angeles County.
Image of average mosquitoes per trap by sampling location and by city/community. The size of the bubbles on the map reflects the relative numbers of mosquitoes caught at each trap.
  • We saw an influx of Aedes mosquitoes this year and resients felt it.
  • In the chart below, we compare year-to-year mosquito presence from our trap collections.
The graph shows weekly average counts of invasive Aedes mosquitoes from 2019 to 2023, highlighting a spike in 2023.
Image of our average collections of Invasive Aedes mosquitoes from 2019-2023. Highlighted are the average collections for this past month.
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Communications Department Mission Statement:

Increase transparency and credibility through multi-media dialogue in order to engage and motivate internal, local, regional, statewide, and nationwide stakeholders to take action and become public health agents of change in their communities.

 

🖋  Written by Ally Gaspar, Outreach Assistant