West Nile virus flare should decline as diseased mosquitoes decrease

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/09/2012 (5037 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The number of confirmed cases of West Nile virus in Manitoba more than doubled this past week, but the good news is the worst of the disease is likely over.

So far this summer, 20 Manitobans have been diagnosed with the illness, which is spread by mosquitoes, the Health Department reported on Friday. That compares with a total of nine cases a week earlier.

But fewer diseased mosquitoes have been showing up recently in provincial traps, a sign the disease is on the decline in Manitoba.

The 11 new West Nile cases resulted from mosquito bites that occurred two to three weeks ago, officials say. Only the Culex tarsalis mosquito — smaller than most breeds of the pest — is known to carry the virus.

Meanwhile, a Winnipeg man who was reportedly seriously ill with West Nile last week has been released from hospital, a spokeswoman for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said Friday.

The man, in his 50s, had come down with the severe neurological syndrome form of West Nile. Hospital authorities refused to release more details of the man’s case, citing privacy legislation.

None of the 11 new cases diagnosed this past week was of this most serious form of the disease, officials said.

This year’s outbreak of West Nile is the most severe in the province since 2007, when there were 587 reported cases of the disease. That year, four Manitobans died of the virus.

Only five Winnipeggers have been diagnosed with West Nile so far. The remainder have been scattered throughout southern Manitoba. Those who have contracted the disease so far have ranged in age from their 20s to their 60s.

Fourteen Manitobans have been diagnosed with the milder non-neurological syndrome West Nile, while five cases remain unclassified.