First mosquitoes test positive for West Nile Virus in Illinois

Posted on June 11, 2020

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – It’s time to talk about West Nile Virus again.

Illinois Department of Public Health director Dr. Ngozi Ezike says a couple of mosquitoes – one in River Forest and one in Evanston – tested positive for the virus last week. And the virus is a relatively new arrival.

“We are only aware of it in Illinois just in the last — not even 20 years,” says Ezike. “From year to year, it’s been varying amounts of disease in terms of humans associated with it, depending on the temperature on what our summer looks like. West Nile Virus does not like cool, rainy weather.”

But it does like standing water. And hot weather.

Your repellent should contain DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, or IR 3535.

https://www.dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/diseases-and-conditions/west-nile-virus

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

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