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By Gillette News Record Staff
Via the Wyoming News Exchange
GILLETTE – West Nile virus season should start earlier than usual in Wyoming this year, the first case of the state involving a woman from Campbell County has already been reported, according to the Wyoming Department of Health .
Health Department spokeswoman Kim Deti said she was not sure if early diagnosis was a sign of the future.
"We have not had many high numbers in recent years," she said of confirmed cases of West Nile virus.
Deti said most people infected with the virus did not have symptoms, so they did not know they were infected. Most people develop fever and other symptoms such as headache, body aches, rashes, and swollen lymph nodes.
A very small percentage of people infected with West Nile virus develop a neuroinvasive disease with symptoms such as severe headaches, fever, stiff neck, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions and paralysis, Deti said. . That's what the wife of Campbell County is dealing with.
"In recent years, we have generally not reported cases until the end of July or August," said Clay Van Houten, head of the infectious disease epidemiology unit at the Ministry of Health, in a press release. . "We do not think that this early affair necessarily means that we are in a difficult season, but we want people to know that they have to protect themselves."
Since the disease reached Wyoming for the first time in 2002, the number of reported human cases has varied significantly from year to year.
"We expect many people with WNV to go undetected, which makes it difficult to know the exact number of cases," Van Houten said.
Mosquitoes spread West Nile virus when they feed on infected birds, and then bite people, animals or other birds, reports the State Department of Health. In 2018, the department was notified of four West Nile cases in Wyoming, including one death in Goshen County.
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