Douglas County West Nile patient released from hospital

The Douglas County individual hospitalized last week with the first reported case of West Nile virus in the area this year has been released from the hospital.

Douglas County last week did some trappings of mosquitos near the 65 year-old individual’s home and sent the insects to Washoe County for testing, according to Dustin Boothe, manager, Carson City Health and Human Services.

Douglas County also sprayed mosquito-killing insecticides on July 6.

On July 8, in Carson City two insecticides — Altosid and Natular — were sprayed from a helicopter in the wetland area near the Carson City Water Resource Recovery Facility and in the vicinity of Andersen Ranch and Silver Saddle Ranch.

Spraying also was done in Fernley on July 8 and in Washoe County on July 7, according to Boothe.

Spraying for mosquitoes started over the weekend, with Douglas County Mosquito Abatement’s spray rigs hitting areas at and southeast of Centerville Lane and Highway 88 in southern Carson Valley.

Aerial spraying of adulticide began on Monday to try to reduce the number of adult mosquitoes flying around.

District Director Krista Jenkins said the West Nile virus case is the earliest she’s seen one since the disease arrived in Carson Valley more than a decade ago.

She said generally the season for West Nile starts July 1, but the positive pool of mosquitoes were trapped two weeks earlier, in late June.

“A good percentage of the time it starts around July 1,” she said. “We had some pretty weird weather this season. This West Nile case is the earliest we’ve had on record.”

Last year there were no cases of West Nile, and no mosquitoes with the disease were trapped.

Typically, human cases start turning up in late August or September.

This year, Jenkins said while there weren’t many mosquitoes in the trap, a larger percentage of them tested positive.

She said she’ll reset the traps and see what happens after this round of spraying.

The person who has the virus got the version that causes meningitis, but is doing OK under the circumstances.

West Nile can also cause encephalitis, but most people who have any reaction, suffer from flu like symptoms.

“Some people get it and don’t even know it,” she said.

There’s no vaccine for humans to prevent West Nile virus, but there’s one for horses, which are severely affected.

She said the district has been treating standing water for mosquito larva since April 1.

“Horse owners need to clean out their water troughs every four to five days,” she said. “Anything that catches water can breed mosquitoes.”