First West Nile Virus-positive pool

Lake County’s first positive West Nile Virus mosquito pool of the season has been identified.

The Ohio Department of Health has confirmed one positive mosquito pool for West Nile Virus that was collected from a Madison trap site on June 26. The Lake County General Health District stated it’s likely that there are positive West Nile Virus mosquitos throughout the county.

Identifying a positive pool (a collection of no more than 50 mosquitos) is confirmation that the West Nile Virus is present and will likely increase for the rest of the summer, the health district stated. So far positive West Nile Virus tests have been reported in 14 counties in Ohio, but there have been no reported cases in humans.

The health distr ict stated that about 80 percent of the people infected with the virus will not show any symptoms, but there is no way to know in advance if they will develop an illness or not. Those who do develop symptoms usually do so between two and 14 days after they are bitten by the infected mosquito.

Up to 20 percent of people who become infected will have symptoms that can last for a few days to as long as several weeks. Symptoms can include:

• fever

• headache

• body aches

• nausea

• vomiting

• swollen lymph glands

• rash on chest, stomach or back

About one in 150 people infected with the virus will develop severe illness. The severe symptoms may last several weeks and neurologic effects may be permanent. Symptoms of severe illness can include:

• high fever

• headache

• neck stiffness

• stupor

• disorientation

• coma

• tremors

• convulsions

• muscle weakness • vision loss

• numbness

• paralysis Death from infection of West Nile Virus is 10 percent for those diagnosed with severe illness, but is much higher for patients diagnosed with West Nile Virus encephalitis and acute flaccid paralysis.

The Lake County General Health District Mosquito Control program is a locally funded program to protect residents from mosquito borne disease. The mosquito control pro- gram tracks the mosquito population, monitors disease levels in the mosquitoes, applies larvicides and conducts nighttime adulticiding.

The mosquito population is monitored through the use of specialized traps placed throughout the county and calls from the public. The trapped mosquitoes are counted and sent to ODH for West Nile Virus testing.

For information visit www.lcghd.org and f ind Mosquito Control under “M.”

METRO CREATIVE CONNECTION