Month: July 2016

Almost 200 law enforcement officers and victim service providers from across Kansas will be in Manhattan Tuesday and Wednesday to team up in the fight against human trafficking, acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said today.

“Human trafficking is the modern form of slavery,” Beall said. “It’s here now. It’s happening in communities across Kansas. It’s everybody’s problem.”

Beall is joining with Riley County Attorney Barry Wilkerson, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center to sponsor the conference, which will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 12 and 8 a.m. to noon July 13 at the Manhattan Conference Center, 410 S. 3rd in Manhattan.

Craig Hill of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children will lead off with a presentation on domestic child sex trafficking. Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett will talk about how law enforcement officers and prosecutors work with reluctant victims and witnesses. Tina Peck of Via Christ Health will discuss how Via Christi’s hospitals in Wichita work to identify trafficking victims who seek emergency treatment and offer them help. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Hart will describe how federal prosecutors are working with the Wichita Police Department to target businesses that are fronts for human trafficking.

Other speakers will include Michael Geiger, a retired detective sergeant from Portland; Chris Baughman, author of “Off the Streets,” Anna Brewer, a retired FBI agent; Deb Kluttz, executive director of The Homestead in Manhattan; Kent Bauman of the Wichita Police Department’s Exploited and Missing Children Unit, Dorothy Sucky Halley and Jeff Wagaman of the Kansas Attorney General’s Office; Katie Cronin of Stinson Leonard Street; and Vivian VanVleet of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Registration is required, including a $50 fee. More information is available on the web at http://2016htconference.weebly.com/

by Abigail Wilson

Five cases of Zika virus have been reported in Kansas, all of which originated outside the United States. State agencies and university laboratories are looking for ways to keep that number at a minimum.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has started a statewide surveillance program to monitor mosquitoes, which it does every year. This year, though, because of the increased concern about Zika, researchers with the Kansas Biological Survey at the University of Kansas will be looking closely for the Aedes mosquito, a species known to carry the virus.

The Zika virus can be carried in two types of Aedes mosquito. It often doesn’t include severe symptoms and rarely leads to death. The virus been linked to some severe birth defects such as microcephaly, where an infant’s head doesn’t develop to full size.

Cassie Sparks, a spokeswoman for KDHE, said the surveillance program began a month ago in southeast Kansas and will fan out through the rest of state.

“The goal of that surveillance is to get a better idea of where the Aedes mosquitos are located in the state and the density of those mosquitos throughout Kansas,” Sparks said.

The surveillance program involves trapping and counting mosquito species in the state. The numbers are then reported back to the KDHE.

A total of 820 cases of Zika have been reported in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, none of those has originated in the United States. That includes all five Kansas cases.

— Abigail Wilson is a reporter for KMUW.

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