Ohio finds more mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus

Associated Press

DAYTON

Ohio’s weather patterns have resulted in more mosquitoes this summer, increasing concerns about West Nile virus, although no human cases of the illness have been reported so far this year, officials said.

State health officials have confirmed that 248 pools of mosquitoes collected from traps have tested positive this year for the virus, up from 78 by this time in 2010, Ohio Department of Health spokeswoman Shannon Libby told The Dayton Daily News.

The insects spread the virus, often picked up from birds they bite. It can lead to coma, paralysis and death in humans. Five cases in humans were reported in Ohio in 2010.

The recent weather conditions have produced a “bumper crop” of mosquitoes, said Tom Hut, supervisor of the special-services bureau for Public Health-Dayton and Montgomery County in southwest Ohio.

Evidence of West Nile virus in mosquitoes has been found in at least 17 areas of Ohio, including Franklin and Licking counties in central Ohio and Cuyahoga, Lorain and Summit counties in Northeast Ohio. Mosquito pools testing positive for West Nile also have been confirmed in the Toledo area of northwest Ohio.

Mosquitoes can transmit a number of diseases that also include the La Crosse encephalitis virus, which has been reported this year in northern and eastern Ohio. In severe cases, it can involve inflammation of the brain.

Four cases of La Crosse encephalitis have been reported this year in children ranging from 5 to 11 years old in Cuyahoga, Stark, Trumbull and Tuscarawas counties, according to state health officials.