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Each year, Michigan collects and tests mosquitoes for infectious disease — the most common being West Nile virus.
Human and animal cases usually start appearing in August, but other states in the Midwest, such as Minnesota and Illinois, have been seeing more cases than usual more than a month earlier, said Rebecca Brandt, president of the Michigan Mosquito Control Association.
“It’s not out of the norm for us to see West Nile virus numbers increase and amplify when we have hot weather and drier conditions,” she said.
Heat speeds up the rate at which viruses spread, and drier conditions mean fewer bodies of water — raising the odds wild animals drink from water that hosts infected mosquitoes, Brandt said.
Michigan is anticipating the trend other states are seeing, and is prepared to address a rapid increase in cases, she said.
Last year, Michigan saw 31 human cases of the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far, there has been one confirmed human case this year in Livingston County, but Brandt expects that number to increase as time goes on.
Many times, people are bitten by mosquitoes, contract West Nile virus and don’t even know it because their immune system fights it off. Other times, people aren’t as lucky.
“It just takes one mosquito bite. You don’t know how your body is going to respond,” she said.
That’s why it’s important for people to take preventative measures, such as wearing long sleeves and bug repellent, and by removing habitat for larvae like small pools of standing water.
The threat for West Nile virus ends once the state sees its first frost.
This story was brought to you as part of a partnership between WKAR and Michigan State University’s Knight Center for Environmental Journalism.