West Nile virus found in Hill County mosquitoes

West Nile virus has been confirmed in a Hill County mosquito pool, Hill Clounty Health Department reports, with the county joining Blaine County as an area with the virus confirmed.

No cases in humans or horses had been reported in the counties as of the filing of this story.

Hill County Health Department warned in a release that people need to take care to avoid the potentially fatal illness caused by the virus

“Remember, the best way to protect yourself from West Nile virus is to prevent mosquito bites,” a release from the health department said.

The release recommends people avoid outdoors as much as they can during the hours of dawn and dusk, to dress in long sleeves and pants if they can, to use mosquito repellant that contains DEET, and to drain all standing water on their property to eliminate breeding grounds for mosquitos.

A page on The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website says there are no vaccines to prevent or medications to treat West Nile virus in people.

“Fortunately, most people infected with WNV do not feel sick,” the page says. “About 1 in 5 people who are infected develop a fever and other symptoms. About 1 out of 150 infected people develop a serious, sometimes fatal, illness.”

In Hill County, Mosquito Control District Supervisor Terry Turner said both the weed and mosquito control districts have been short-handed, but are getting more people on staff, including someone to take the position formerly held by Josh Miller, who died at the age of 32 in May.

Turner said the district hired Austin Nelson to take Miller’s place as remote pilot and command and administrator for using a drone in the districts.

Miller, who had long-term illness due to his contracting West Nile, had been working for the district since 2016. His death was a considerable setback for its work.

Turner said in July that the districts still were short-handed, but he expected Nelson to be a major help in getting caught up.

“I think he will do quite well,” Turner said. “He should be able to handle things.”

He said the weather had been another problem, however. The fog used to control mosquitoes can’t be used if the winds are more than 13 mph, and few nights had allowed that at that time.

He said the dry weather had helped so far, getting rid of some of the standing weather left after the severe floods from rapid snowmelt in April.

“We had water everywhere,” Turner said, adding that it has dried up in some places.

He said people need to do whatever they can to reduce the amount of water standing on their property. One cup of water can produce 250 mosquitoes, a 5-gallon can half full of water can breed 10,000 and an old tire can produce thousands in just days.

People should empty any containers of standing water, regularly change water in pet dishes and bird baths, clean out gutters and make sure vegetation is trimmed back and water is drained.

“It don’t take much water to produce a lot of mosquitoes,” Turner said.

He said some human cases had been confirmed in North Dakota by late July, and July, August and September are the months that catching the disease is most likely.

“It’s starting to pop up on the radar now that the positive pools are hitting,” he said.