Mild winter brings West Nile concerns to W.Va.
PARKERSBURG (AP) — Health officials in the Mid-Ohio Valley are concerned that a mild winter could spur a large jump in the mosquito population.
If that happens, Chuck Mapes with the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Health Department says the risk of a West Nile virus infection also would increase.
Mosquitoes carry the West Nile virus.
Mapes tells the Parkersburg News and Sentinel that residents should remove sources of standing water, which are mosquitoes’ primary breeding areas.
He says the last reported human case of West Nile in the region was in August 2011.
