CTDPH reports year’s first case of West Nile Virus

This morning, the Connecticut Department of Public Health (CTDPH) announced this year’s first case of West Nile Virus (WNV), a mosquito-borne illness that first appeared in Connecticut in 1999. Last year, the state recorded seven such cases.

“We continue to detect high numbers of mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus in Connecticut as a part of the statewide monitoring program,” said Dr. Philip Armstrong, a medical entomologist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES). “This is the critical time of summer when virus activity reaches its peak in the mosquito population.”

The woman who contracted the virus is a resident of New Haven County, between the ages of 60-69. Her symptoms started the first week of August and has since recovered. The CTDPH said that positive laboratory tests confirmed the presence of WNV antibodies.

According to CTDPH, West Nile is the most common mosquito-borne illness in the United States. Most infected with WNV are asymptomatic, but 1 in 5 develop West Nile fever, characterized by fever, body aches, joint pains, headaches and a rash. 1 of 150 infected people develop severe illness that impacts their nervous system, and 1 in 10 of these cases are fatal. People aged 60 or older are at the highest risk of developing WNV’s most severe symptoms.

The spread of WNV, and other mosquito-borne illnesses that can be found in Connecticut, such as Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and Jamestown Canyon virus, are monitored by the state’s Connecticut Mosquito Management Program (CMMP). The program, which is composed of DTPH, several other state agencies and the UConn Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science, maintains statistics gathered by the CAES at each of their 108 mosquito-trapping stations located across 88 municipalities. Mosquitos are grouped by their species, collection site, and date and tested for each disease, giving the state an idea of how common mosquito-borne illness can be.

According to the Program’s data , the prevalence of WNV has been slowly increasing in mosquito populations throughout the state over the past five years, though positive-testing mosquito populations still remain under 1%. The number of positive-testing mosquitos was at its lowest in 2019 and peaked in 2022. On July 18, CMMP released a statement warning state residents that WNV-positive mosquito populations were expected to expand geographically throughout the state, based on testing results and wet weather conditions. Testing at that time had identified WNV-positive mosquitos in Bridgeport, Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, New Haven, Norwalk, Stamford, and Wethersfield.

“The current warm weather and high humidity provide favorable conditions for the mosquitoes that transmit West Nile virus,” said Armstrong. “We urge everyone to prevent mosquito bites by using insect repellent and covering bare skin, especially during dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active.”

In order to minimize mosquitoes around homes, CTDPH recommends residents to eliminate sources of standing water on your property that mosquitoes could use as breeding grounds, change bird bath water weekly, clean clogged gutters, and clean and chlorinate swimming pools. To reduce risk of mosquito-borne illness when outdoors, CTDPH recommends residents to minimize outdoor activities at dusk and dawn, wear tight-knit, and loose-fitting clothing that covers the entire body, use mosquito netting when camping, and use bug spray.

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