FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                  Connecticut Department of Public Health

November 9, 2010                                     Contact: William Gerrish

                                                                  (860) 509-7270

                                                                  CT Agricultural Experiment Station

                                                                  Contact: Dr. Theodore Andreadis   

                                                                  (203) 974-8510

Hot weather contributed to active West Nile virus season in 2010

Hartford – The State Mosquito Management Program today announced that statewide mosquito trapping and testing has concluded for the year and reported mosquitoes tested positive for the West Nile Virus in 24 cities and towns in 2010.

“Due to the onset of cool weather, the risk of transmission of mosquito-borne diseases is now low,” said Department of Public Health Commissioner, Dr. J. Robert Galvin. “The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station will resume mosquito trapping and testing next June.”

To monitor West Nile virus (WNV) and Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV), the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station maintains 91 trapping stations in 72 municipalities from June through October each year. Mosquito traps are set every 10 days at each site on a rotating basis. A total of 115,734 mosquitoes were trapped and tested in 2010.

WNV and EEEV MOSQUITO ACTIVITY

This season, 220 WNV positive mosquito pools were identified from June 14 through October 7 at 29 locations in 24 municipalities – Bethel, Bridgeport, Darien, Fairfield, Greenwich, Hartford, Manchester, Meriden, Milford, New Canaan, Newtown, Norwalk, New Britain, New Haven, Orange, Stamford, Stratford, Stonington, Trumbull, Wallingford, West Hartford, West Haven, Westport and Wethersfield. 

Four mosquito pools, identified from August 20 through September 30, tested positive for EEEV in the town of North Stonington.

In 2009, WNV-positive mosquitoes were found in 16 towns and EEEV-positive mosquitoes were identified in 23 towns. The number of WNV- and EEEV-positive mosquitoes and the locations in which they are identified vary annually and can be attributed to many environmental factors including rainfall and temperatures from spring through fall.

HUMAN WNV CASES

There were ten human cases of WNV infection in Connecticut this season, with eight patients contracting the virus in state and onset of illness from mid-June through mid-September. The individuals infected in state resided in Bridgeport, Clinton, Greenwich, Hartford, New Haven, Stamford, Trumbull and Westport. None of the infections this year were fatal.

There were no cases of WNV infections in 2009. There have been 71 locally acquired human cases of WNV infection and three WNV-related fatalities in Connecticut since 2000.

NATIONAL WNV CASES

As of October 21, 2010, 832 human cases of WNV related illness and 34 fatalities were reported in 48 states by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. WNV related illnesses reported in humans in the northeastern part of the United States included: New York (126), New Jersey (29), Pennsylvania (26), Massachusetts (7) and New Hampshire (1).

The State of Connecticut Mosquito Management Program is an interagency program consisting of the Department of Environmental Protection, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, the Department of Public Health, the Department of Agriculture, and the University of Connecticut Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science.

Additional resources for information include:

• The Connecticut Mosquito Management Program Website at www.ct.gov/mosquito
• The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Web site at www.ct.gov/caes
• The Department of Environmental Protection Web site at www.ct.gov/dep
• The Department of Agriculture Web site at www.ct.gov/doag
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site at www.cdc.gov

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