Batches of mosquitoes infected with West Nile virus have recently been collected in both Davidson County and Shelby County.
On Tuesday, the Metro Nashville Public Health Department announced that the department’s Pest Management Division captured the mosquitoes at a trap near Bell Road and Anderson Road in southeast Nashville.
In addition to setting additional traps, monitoring areas of standing water, and applying larvicide if mosquito larvae are present, staff with the health department’s Pest Management Division will send fliers to residences in the impacted areas with “steps to protect against biting mosquitoes and to take steps to reduce standing water where mosquitoes can lay eggs.”
Tonight from 8:15 to 11:15 pm, @ShelbyTNHealth will conduct truck-based spraying for mosquitoes in portions of these zip codes: 38002, 38016, 38028, 38017. Map: https://t.co/RdjTGZW0Pl. #FighttheBite by eliminating mosquito breeding in your yard.@CityOfMemphis @ShelbyCoTN pic.twitter.com/NQwxGbheRw
— Shelby County Health (@ShelbyTNHealth) June 15, 2023
In Memphis, batches of mosquitoes infected with the virus have also recently been detected by the Shelby County Health Department’s Mosquito Control Program in zip codes 38115 and 38135.
In addition to applying larvicides to ditches and standing bodies of water in order to kill mosquito larvae and decrease the adult mosquito population, the Mosquito Control Program is conducting truck-mounted spraying to control the spread of adult mosquitoes that carry the virus.
According to the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH), West Nile virus is one of several mosquito-borne viruses in the nation that can infect people.
“The vast majority of people that become infected with the West Nile virus have no illness or experience only a mild flu-like illness that includes fever, headache and body aches lasting only a few days. Some persons may also have a mild rash or swollen lymph glands,” TDH writes on its website. “Less than one percent of those infected may develop meningitis or encephalitis, the most severe forms of the disease, which occurs primarily in persons over 50 years of age.”
No human cases of West Nile virus have been reported in Tennessee at this time.
Nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 17 West Nile virus disease cases in 2023 across 10 states.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
