Steve Quayle News Alerts

January 29, 2003
By John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News

State and county health officials are gearing up for what promises to be a much tougher season of fighting West Nile virus this summer.

"I definitely think it will be greater than last summer, because the virus did not arrive until late last season," state epidemiologist John Pape said Tuesday.

This season, despite the ongoing drought, Pape said he expects the virus will show up earlier and "have time to build up and amplify."

Typically, the season for mosquito-borne diseases begins around mid-July and lasts until mid-September, Pape said. The state's first confirmed West Nile case was detected on Aug. 15.

In all, health officials found the disease in 380 horses, 138 birds, one cat, one sheep and 13 humans in Colorado. There were no human fatalities.

If the drought persists this summer, it may limit the number of cases but it will probably increase the rate of transmission, health officials said.

"The drought seems to be a kind of double-edged sword," Pape said. "In drought years, birds and mosquitoes huddle around the last puddle of water, so the transmission is much better," he said. "If the drought continues, I think what you'll see this year is you'll have one area that's really hot - lots of cases - and 20 miles down the road, nothing."

To knock down the number of cases, health officials have been urging county and local governments to spend more this summer on mosquito control.

In Weld County, for example, the county commission has authorized spending $550,000 for the first major mosquito control program in more than a decade, said Trevor Jiricek, the county's director of environmental health. With contributions from local municipalities, the cost of the entire program could run close to $1 million, he said.

Weld was one of the hardest hit areas last year, with 74 horses that contracted the virus.

http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_1706643,00.html