West Nile Virus Found in Edgewood

The state West Nile Virus Control Program recently reported that a mosquito tested positive for the disease in on June 13.

Approximately 80 percent of people who are infected with West Nile Virus will not show any symptoms at all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Up to 20 percent of the people who become infected have symptoms such as fever, headache, and body aches, nausea, vomiting, and sometimes swollen lymph glands or a skin rash on the chest, stomach and back. Symptoms can last for as short as a few days, though even healthy people have become sick for several weeks.

About one in 150 people infected with West Nile Virus will develop severe illness. The severe symptoms can include high fever, headache, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, vision loss, numbness and paralysis. These symptoms may last several weeks, and neurological effects may be permanent.

Here is a list of precautions provided by the control program that you can take regarding this information:

• Dispose of tin cans, plastic containers, ceramic pots or similar water-holding containers that have collected on your property.
• Pay special attention to discarded tires. Stagnant water in tires are where most mosquitoes breed.
• Drill holes in the bottom of recycling containers left outdoors.
• Have clogged roof gutters cleaned every year, particularly if the leaves from surrounding trees have a tendency to plug up the drains. Roof gutters can produce millions of mosquitoes each season.
• Turn over plastic wading pools when not in use. Stagnant water in a wading pool becomes a place for mosquitoes to breed.
• Turn over wheelbarrows and don't let water stagnate in birdbaths. Both provide breeding habitats for domestic mosquitoes.
• Aerate ornamental pools or stock them with fish. Water gardens can become major mosquito producers if they are allowed to stagnate. Clean and chlorinate swimming pools not in use. A swimming pool left untended by a family on vacation for a month can produce enough mosquitoes to result in neighborhood-wide complaints. Mosquitoes may even breed in the water that collects on pool covers.
• The PA WNV Surveillance and Control Program is NOT responsible for waste tires. The PA DEP Bureau of Land Recycling and Waste Management handles waste tires. For more information on waste tires or to report waste tire piles, contact Tom Woy at 1-800-346-1932 or 717-787-7381.