Ohio sees fewer cases of West Nile this year

AKRON (AP) -- State health officials have received fewer reports of West Nile virus this year than expected, likely because of rainy weather.
Mosquitoes that transmit the virus do better in drier conditions.
"Mother Nature and human intervention together are doing the job to avoid getting people involved and keeping the virus in birds and mosquitoes," said Bob Restifo of the Ohio Department of Health.
An 80-year-old Butler County man who died in July has been the state's only human victim of West Nile virus this year.
According to the Health Department's Web site, Ohio had 108 human cases of the virus in 2003, including eight deaths, and 31 deaths in the 299 probable and 142 confirmed cases in 2002.
Franklin County, which includes Columbus, has been the top area this year for the virus in mosquitoes, with 147 samples testing positive. Hamilton County (Cincinnati) was next with 57 positive samples and Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) was third with 20.
Twenty counties have positive samples for mosquitoes so far this year, while 33 of Ohio's 88 counties tested positive for the virus in mosquitoes last year.
Restifo cautioned that it's too early to say that Ohio has escaped the worst of West Nile this year because the number of human cases usually peaks in late August and early September.
Fewer than 1 percent of people bitten by infected mosquitoes become severely ill from West Nile. Most human infections include symptoms such as fever, headache, body aches, a skin rash and swollen glands.