Are you a mosquito magnet?  I know that I am.  My husband and I can sit on the deck for half an hour, and he won’t have a single bug bite.  I, on the other hand, will be covered with little red itchy bumps wherever I’ve neglected to use bug repellent.  It got so bad that we finally bit the bullet and invested in a screened in porch.   It’s West Nile virus season here in Indiana, and it can be serious, folks.  Now, who’s to blame for this virus?

I’m hoping it won’t be politicized this year.  I mean, it’s been around forever, and no one ever tried to blame it on the Democrats or Republicans.  But that could change this fall.  When the wildfires started in California, I predicted it would be politicized.  Never mind that California has always been prone to  wildfires.  What if they have an earthquake?  Will that be politicized?  It seems like  any human pestilence or apocalyptic scale disaster can be blamed on the president,  governor, congress,  senate, or the local mayor. .  No one ever thinks about blaming Mother Nature or The Good Lord.

 

West Nile Virus infections occur mostly between June and September.  That means we’re still not out of the woods.   WNV disease is the most commonly reported mosquito-borne disease in Indiana and in the United States. Symptoms begin to appear about 3 to 14 days after infection.  They include fever, stiff neck. headaches, rash, disorientation, swollen lymph nodes, vision problems, seizures and fatigue.   Before you get too worried, you should know that most cases are mild and go away within a week or so.   Encephalitis only occurs in about 1% of the cases.

Is this beginning to sound familiar?  We’ve been hearing that most cases of Covid-19 are mild.  If you’re like me, you know of someone who had  symptoms that lasted less than a day.  But the media focuses only on the most serious cases.  That makes it easier to politicize.

I once worked with someone who was out for several months with WNV  that went on to encephalitis.  When it hits home like that, you become more aware of the dangers, and also more apprehensive.  I’ve never really lost my fear of West Nile Virus. .  But you can’t stay indoors all summer in fear of mosquito bites.  Our local health departments do everything they can to inform us about ways to stop mosquitoes from breeding. But in the end, who’s to blame for this virus?