It’s officially summer and that means the West Nile virus is back. As a result, Los Angeles County health officials are warning people to protect themselves against the mosquito-borne infection.
“As much as we enjoy the warmer days, so do the mosquitoes. As the days get warmer, we will see more mosquitoes and some of them will be infected with virus,” said Dr. Aiman Halai, vector-borne disease expert with the Department of Public Health.
The West Nile virus first showed up in the U.S. in 1999 and quickly spread. Since then, there have been more than 56,000 reported cases and more than 25,000 have been hospitalized. More than 2,700 people have died. It’s now endemic in all the lower 48 states.
There is no vaccine or treatment to cure the disease, so preventing mosquitoes from getting in your home or breeding nearby is the best defense.
Most people who get infected never know it or recover after just a bad fever, nasty headache and other symptoms. But about 1 out of 150 people who get the virus develop serious complications. West Nile virus can affect the nervous system and can cause encephalitis or swelling of the brain. It can also cause meningitis, which refers to swelling of the fluid and membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Both can cause permanent paralysis and even death.
“About 10% of those people die. People over the age of 50 and with underlying medical problems such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, being on immunosuppressive medications, those are the conditions that put patients at risk for severe illness from the virus,” Halai said.
The bulk of West Nile cases generally occur in August and September in L.A. County, but usually begin in June.
No human cases have been reported yet, but West Nile infected mosquitoes and birds…
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