Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

More West Nile virus cases reported in Las Vegas area

Mosquito

James Gathany/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / AP

This 2006 photo provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a female Aedes aegypti mosquito in the process of acquiring a blood meal from a human host.

Eleven people have been infected with West Nile virus in Clark County this year, most with a more severe form of the mosquito-borne illness, according to the Southern Nevada Health District. Three new cases were identified today, officials said.

“Our message to the public is that West Nile virus is here, but it is preventable,” Dr. Joe Iser, the Health District’s chief health officer, said in a statement.

Nine of the 11 patients were diagnosed with the more serious but less common neuroinvasive form of the sickness, which can cause meningitis and encephalitis, the Health District said.

More people could have been infected with a less serious form of the illness and not realized or reported it, district spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore said.

Symptoms of neuroinvasive West Nile include high fever, headache, stiff neck, disorientation, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, vision loss, numbness, paralysis and coma, the Health District said.

People over 60 and those with cancer, diabetes, hypertension or kidney diseases, as well as transplant recipients, are more susceptible to becoming ill.

Mosquitoes in 32 Clark County ZIP codes have tested positive for the virus, the Health District said. “We are clearly seeing ongoing transmission of disease in both people and mosquitoes,” Iser said.

West Nile was first detected in Clark County in 2005. The Health District advises that people try to prevent mosquito bites and to rid the areas around their homes of standing water where insects can breed.

To prevent mosquito bites, people should wear light-colored, long-sleeve shirts and pants and use insect repellant with the active ingredients of DEET, Picaridin, IR3535, oil lemon eucalyptus and 2-undercanone, the Health District said.