Officials Confirm First West Nile Virus Case in Bergen County
County officials urge residents to take precautions against mosquito-borne virus.
An 80-year-old man has become the first case of West Nile Virus reported in Bergen County, officials said Friday.
The resident is recovering from the mosquito-borne virus at a rehabilitation center, according to a statement from the county executive’s office.
“Residents of Bergen County are urged to take precautions against mosquito bites,” the statement said. “The Bergen County Mosquito Control Division has been conducting larvicide applications around the county on a regular basis in response to West Nile Virus surveillance results.”
Bergen County officials published a list of precautions online, including using insect repellent and removing standing water where mosquitoes can breed.
The recent spread of West Nile Virus has reached its highest levels since 1999, when the virus was first detected in the United States, the state health department said Thursday. In New Jersey, officials have confirmed eight total cases this year in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties.
Nationally, most of the more than 1,500 cases have been confirmed in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Michigan, Oklahoma and South Dakota, state officials said.
"West Nile Virus cases tend to increase in late summer and fall and residents should take steps to prevent mosquito bites,” state Department of Health Commissioner Mary E. O’Dowd said in a statement. “Residents should protect themselves by using repellent, wearing long sleeves and pants and avoiding the outdoors during dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active."
Most people infected with the virus show no symptoms, according to health officials. Although some people will have mild to moderate symptoms including fever, headache, rash, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and swollen lymph nodes.
More information on the virus is available online from the New Jersey Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Donna Colucci
6:27 pm on Friday, August 31, 2012
SKIN SO SOFT from Avon...put it in a pump spray bottle, add some water and massage it into your skin. Or what my daughter uses, spray hair conditioner, if you don't want to smell like skin so soft.
Hank
6:38 pm on Friday, August 31, 2012
i read somewhere that if you sit outside use a fan to blow them away
Michele
7:19 pm on Friday, August 31, 2012
Yikes !!!! Attack of the killer Mosquitos !!!!
Danielle
7:21 pm on Friday, August 31, 2012
The Asian tiger mosquitoes don't care about disk. They bite all day long and are big time carriers of west Nile.
Karin Kiesow-Irvine
7:36 pm on Friday, August 31, 2012
and we stopped spraying for mosquitos, WHY?
Deleted because of harassment
1:05 pm on Sunday, September 2, 2012
Skin So Soft does not work, nor does any other concotion that does not contain DEET - it's been extensively studied by the FDA and other agencies, which is why Avon stopped advertising that it did. Fans will discourage mosquitos but will not stop some from biting, any more than being on a windy beach does.
West Nile is a life-threatening and life-altering illness that can come from ONE single bite from an insect. I had it in 2008 and it took me almost six months to begin to feel normal, and more than a year to completely recover. My initial symphoms were missed as just a bit of a swollen gland virus, and I was told to take aspirin for a few days and I'd be fine. When those few day's passed, and I could not turn my head, and started having problems with fatique and dizziness, I ended up on antibiotics and lots of rest. And I was a middle-aged, not elderly person, with good immunities.
Everyone needs to take this as the serious threat that it is, and when outside, ward it off with appropriate repellants and clothing that can protect you at times you are exposed. There is a spray bottle of Off! by my back door, and anyone sitting outside, at night, is given it to use. Unpleasant as it is, West Nile doesn't come off in the shower or wash off when you go inside. And for one 80 year old in Bergen, this week, it was fatal.
Donna Colucci
4:03 pm on Sunday, September 2, 2012
Well those concoction works for us.
TomW
10:53 pm on Sunday, September 2, 2012
What town in Bergen County is this elderly man from?
Ulises
11:20 pm on Sunday, September 2, 2012
My brother-in-law, special forces military officer, told me in the early nineties, when in training he was given an Avon product to put on for mosquitoes. If it may help, like Off, and btw, I've bitten on Off, why not try it.
Donna, I was just telling my wife I've always wonder what the name of that Avon product was, of course she said, "I knew that". Anyway, thank you, where can I buy it - the squitoes love me.
Donna Colucci
9:27 am on Monday, September 3, 2012
Avon.com? I rarely get bit. My daughter hardly gets bit...but you must have fast blood! They can hear it, LOL Happy Labor Day of Love!
Deleted because of harassment
11:49 am on Monday, September 3, 2012
FDA on repellants that WORK: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/RepellentUpdates.htm
Skin-so-soft does not, and does not contain any of the known, tested ingredients that repell mosquitos and other biting insects. There are people that swear by all sorts of folk remedies, includiing pennies in a plastic bag, garlic, and beer, but when you are combating a potentially deadly disease, you might want to rely on science and not stuff someone read on the internet or word of mouth from a company that makes bubble bath (which is what SSS is).
Andy Schmidt
8:35 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Correct - people apply SSS and report that they had no bites. What, of course, they don't know is whether that person WOULD have been bitten at all on that particular day - even without the SSS. Typical anecdotal evidence - which was harmless as long as it's "just" a moscito bite, but NOW the stakes are higher.
The SSS myth has been out there for decades (I originally heard it from fellow divers traveling to warm climates long before there was an Internet), it's amazing how peopel cling to those stories long after they have been disproven.
Dick Gozinia
7:16 am on Wednesday, September 5, 2012
It reminds me of my days in Nam with Malaria. Very Scary