Rainy days and that virus always bring me down

Music and rain always have had a great relationship. In 1969, for example, B.J. Thomas did “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” and a year later, Credence Clearwater Revival had “Who’ll Stop the Rain.” Prince did “Purple Rain” in ‘84, same as The Eurythmics with “Here Comes the Rain Again.” We’re overdue for another big one, I think, and considering some recent news, it might be titled something like this: “Rainy Days and the Virus Always Bring Me Down.”

Pennsylvania — in particular, Bucks and Montgomery counties — just experienced the worst West Nile virus season in 15 years. There were 72 human cases statewide of the mosquito-borne illness, three of them resulting in death. Bucks set a new record with six human illnesses, while Montgomery had seven.

What happened this year, I asked Neil Shader, press secretary, state Environmental Protection Department?

“The extremely wet weather this summer created conditions that were very favorable to mosquito breeding, leading to elevated populations and, with them, higher prevalence of West Nile virus,” he said.

Are alternate treatment plans other than field spraying being made?

“Not at this time,” he said.

And what “extremely wet weather” we’ve had. Record rainfall amounts have been recorded every month since the beginning of the year, with precipitation boosts this summer from Hurricanes Florence and Michael. The conditions have raised mosquito breeding throughout the state, and toward the end of the season when birds migrate south, the mosquitoes seek blood elsewhere, like from humans. About 20 percent of people bitten by a West Nile-infected mosquito develop symptoms such as a fever and body aches.

West Nile was seen for the first time in Pennsylvania in 2000, and the state’s virus surveillance program recorded 237 human cases, including nine deaths, in 2003, and 60 human cases with four deaths in 2012. This year there were 72 human cases in the state. Bucks had six, breaking its 2012 record of five, and Montgomery had seven, falling short of the county record of nine in 2002.

So where does it go from here? Was this summer’s wet weather due to global warming? If improvements aren’t made, can we expect increased rain and heightened mosquito breeding? Can a single weather event or a rainy summer season even be attributed to climate change? As global temperatures continue to rise — the facts are there to prove its happening — large amounts of rain can be anticipated, say climatologists. And that means more mosquitoes. Maybe the solution is for everyone statewide to sing lyrics from that new song.

“What I have they used to call the flu

I’m achy, tired and feelin’ blue

Started with a mosquito bite, and then it rain all night

Hangin’ around, with nothing to do but frown.

Rainy days and that virus always bring me down.”