West Nile Arrives in Ohio; Avon Lake Not Ready to Spray

It's been a wet spring, and early summer. According to the National Weather service, spring saw 18.21 inches of rainfall in Northeast Ohio, surpassing the record of 16.33 that fell in 1989.

With the warm weather, people are heading outdoors which means a higher liklihood of mosquito bites.

With it comes the fear of West Nile virus, and while no cases have turned up yet in Avon Lake, Lorain or its surrounding counties, mosquitoes collected in the Columbus area this week, have provided the first evidence of West Nile virus in Ohio this year.

That has prompted many communities to initiate spraying for the pests. According to Avon Lake Tom Lescher, that is not the case for the city.

"We have a contract with Lorain City Health (Department - LHD), and that is one area they help us out with," Lescher said. "It is all complaint generated, so if we receive a complaint from an area that they are having a lot of mosquito's, then an employee of the LHD comes in and place mosquito traps in that vicinity. They are then collected and tested to see if the virus would be here."

Lescher did say, however, that the city has submitted samples from some traps, but unless there was a positive result, the city would not have to resort to spraying. He also said that while there have been cases of the virus found in surrounding communities over the years, Avon Lake has never had a case reported.

"If a spray were to take place, and I'm not saying it would, it would happen in the vicinity of where the trap was set," Lescher said. "But I can't even remember the last time there was spraying here, it had to be over 20 years ago."

Lescher attributes that to two things; the fact people take care of their properties in the city, and a lack of breeding grounds.

"I think if people keep their properties clean and dry it really helps out tremendously," Lescher said. "The other issue, is over the years that Avon Lake has developed so much, that much of its wooded areas are gone, so that helped out too, because we lost some areas that would hold water for a longer time, so when you eliminate all of that, you eliminate the problem."

In 2010, Ohio had 260 West Nile virus positive mosquito pools from 8,843 total pools tested (totaling 316,623 mosquitoes) according to the state department of health. There were 25 horse samples tested for the virus by the Ohio Department of Agriculture; one was positive. In addition, five human West Nile Virus cases were reported in Ohio during 2010.

How the virus arrived in the United States is not known. It was first found in 1999 when it caused illness in 59 patients in New York City, and spread rapidly across the United States after that.

Check back later to see steps to prevent becoming infected by the West Nile virus.