Medical Entomology

10October2006

FIGHT THE BITE!! Wear your insect repellant, and get rid of standing water on your property! We have reached the time of year when we see the highest number of human infections with West Nile virus. As of the 10th of October, 29 cases of WNV-associated disease have been reported. West Nile virus positive samples include mosquitoes (Dubuque, Polk (x2), Pottawattamie (x3), Scott (x5), Story (x2), and Woodbury counties), sentinel chickens (Black Hawk (x2), Cerro Gordo (x3), Dubuque, Linn, Ringgold (x2), Scott (x2), and Woodbury (x7) counties), wild birds (Blackhawk, Benton, Bremer, Buchanan, Chicksaw, Clay, Clinton, Crawford, Delaware, Dubuque, Grundy, Johnson, Hamilton, Linn, Lyon, Plymouth, Pocahontas, Pottawattamie (x2), Sac, Sioux, Story, Warren, and Woodbury (x3) counties), horses (Buena Vista, Cerro Gordo, Davis, Mitchell, Washington (x2), Winneshiek, and Woodbury (x2) counties), blood donations (Black Hawk (x2), Clinton (x2), Dubuque, Keokuk, Scott, Washington, Winnebago, and Woodbury counties) and samples from people suffering from West Nile-caused illness (Adair, Cass, Carroll, Cerro Gordo, Dickinson, Emmett (x3), Hardin, Henry, Jackson, Kossuth, Lee, Marion, O'Brien, Plymouth (x3), Pottawattamie (x2), Ringgold, Shelby, Sioux, Wapello (x2), Washington, and Woodbury (x3) Counties). Confirmatory testing was performed by the University of Iowa Hygienic Laboratory. For more information on how our program is run, please follow this LINK.