West Nile is Back with a Vengence
The nation is on pace to have its worst West Nile virus season in years, federal health officials said Thursday.
So far this year, there have been nearly four times as many cases reported as there were at the same time last year. However, cool weather in August or September — when the bulk of West Nile cases usually occur — could take the sting out of the season, officials added.
“If this trend continues like this, it’s going to be a very high,” said Dr. Lyle Petersen of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nineteen states, most of them west of the Mississippi, have reported 122 human cases of the mosquito-borne disease. That total includes three deaths. Health officials had counted only 33 cases by late July last year but it turned out to be the worst season since the record year 2003.
At least 177 people died from West Nile in 2006 out of 4,269 cases; 264 people died out of nearly 10,000 cases in 2003.
West Nile virus was first reported in the United States in 1999 in New York, then spread across the country. Only about one in five infected people get sick. Severe symptoms including neck stiffness, disorientation, coma and paralysis.
A variety of signs say this could be a bad year. In Georgia, for example, a recent drought helped cause a more than threefold increase in the number of disease-transmitting mosquitoes.
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west nile, mosquitoes
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