Arapahoe County reported the first known human case of West Nile virus in Colorado for 2024 on Wednesday, marking an early start to the mosquito-borne disease’s season. Typically, Colorado doesn’t see its first West Nile cases until July , and they take off in August. Mosquito activity increases when days are hot and nights stay relatively warm.
“While we know that West Nile virus is endemic to Colorado — meaning we expect to see some cases each year — we never quite know how many to expect or just how bad a season will be,” Melissa Adair, communicable disease epidemiology manager at Arapahoe County Public Health, said in a news release. “What this first case confirms for us, however, is that West Nile virus is present in our mosquito population, and as mosquito numbers increase, the risk of West Nile virus will, too,” Last year, Colorado had 634 known cases in more than half of the state’s counties, which was the highest total since 2003, when the virus arrived in the state. Fifty-one of those people died and 386 spent time as hospital inpatients.
To prevent infection with West Nile virus: All Colorado counties have reported at least one human case of West Nile virus since 2003. No one knows how many people have had the virus, because most don’t get sick. About one in five people who get West Nile develop mild symptoms, such as fever, body aches, a headache and, less commonly, a rash or swollen lymph nodes.
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