Our Review: Be Proactive During the Mosquito, West Nile Season

Whitney Rupp – [email protected]

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Mosquitoes are bad enough, but when there is a chance that they may carry West Nile virus, they are even more annoying.

The virus is transmitted by mosquito bites that have caught the virus from an infected bird. Symptoms include fever, nausea and death, and in rare cases, death.

For about 16 years, the summer and early autumn months have been reporting birds, mosquitoes and humans locally infected with West Nile virus.

So while you are likely to start glazing over these titles as they become more common, it's not the time to be complacent.

Symptoms can last from a few days to a few weeks. Four out of five people infected with West Nile virus will have no symptoms. In rare cases, a serious illness, including meningitis or encephalitis – or even death –
may occur. People over the age of 50 and people who are immunosuppressed are at higher risk of contracting a serious illness of West Nile virus.

And as we are in the hot summer days, we should observe an increase in the activity of the virus. In hot, dry weather, West Nile mosquitoes breed in stagnant water and multiply rapidly.

Health officials in Illinois reported that the state has confirmed its first human case of West Nile virus this year.

"R": reduce, repel and report

• REDUCE – ensure that doors and windows are snug. Repair or replace screens that have tears or other openings. Try to keep the doors and windows closed. Eliminate, or refresh every week, all sources of stagnant water where mosquitoes can reproduce, including water from bird baths, ponds, flowerpots, bowls, bowls, clogged gutters, wading pools, old tires and other containers. on the outside, wear shoes and socks, long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, and apply an insect repellent containing DEET, picaridin, lemon eucalyptus oil or IR 3535 according to the instructions on the label. Consult a physician before using repellents on infants.

• REPORT – report places where water is stagnant for more than a week, such as roadside ditches, flooded water courses and other similar places likely to be disturbed. attract mosquitoes. The local health department or city government might be able to add larvicide to the water, which would kill the mosquito eggs.