West Nile Virus

In Redding Mosquitoes

HARTFORD (AP) –– Mosquitoes trapped in Redding are the first to test positive for the West Nile virus this year, the state’s Department of Public Health reported last week.

Earlier last week, the DEP said crows infected with the disease had been discovered in the towns of Columbia, Somers, Southington, Wallingford, and Westbrook.

“We knew we were expecting we’d see this any day now,” said Theodore Andreadis, chief medical entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.

There have been no human cases of the disease reported in the state this year.

The first human case of the virus typically shows up a few weeks after the first mosquitoes are discovered, Mr Andreadis said. In past years, the first human cases in Connecticut have emerged in August.

Researchers say they are not sure how large a problem the virus will pose this summer.

Scientists say the virus spreads better in hotter, drier summers.

But after a wet spring, the state’s mosquito population is larger, Mr Andreadis said. Health officials say they do not know yet if more mosquitoes will translate into a worse West Nile season.

“My only prediction this year is that it’s going to be back,” he said. “It will probably run its course in the same time frame as last year.”

The mosquitoes trapped in Redding were a predominantly bird-feeding species. The infected mosquitoes were trapped on July 8, and last year’s first mosquitoes turned up toward the end of July, Mr Andreadis said.

Last year, 17 people in ten towns in Fairfield, Hartford and New Haven counties contracted the virus. Ten people were hospitalized in last year’s bout, but all recovered.