In the state’s first human cases of the year, two Massachusetts citizens have contracted the mosquito-borne West Nile virus.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) revealed on Tuesday, August 29, that a woman in her 70s was exposed to the virus in another part of the country, and a male in his 40s was exposed in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
The virus is considered moderately dangerous in the Greater Boston area, which includes Middlesex, Norfolk, and Suffolk counties, as well as sections of Bristol, Plymouth, and Worcester counties, as well as parts of Hampden, Hampshire, and Berkshire counties.
“This is the first time that West Nile virus infection has been identified in Massachusetts residents this year,” said Public Health Commissioner Robert Goldstein, MD, PhD.
According to Goldstein, the months of August and September are the most dangerous for catching the fatal illness.
“Populations of mosquitoes that can carry and spread this virus are fairly large this year, and we have seen recent increases in the number of WNV-positive mosquito samples from multiple parts of the Commonwealth,” Goldstein said.
In 2022, eight human instances of West Nile virus infection were found in Massachusetts, with the first reported on August 25. On September 1, 2021, the first instance of the year arrived.
Transmission and symptoms of WNV
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the West Nile virus has become the top cause of mosquito-borne disease in the United States since its introduction in 1999.
According to the CDC’s website, most instances of West Nile virus—a flavivirus in the same family as yellow fever, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis, and the Zika virus — are spread when Culex mosquitoes bite infected birds and subsequently attack people and other animals.
The virus is not transmitted by eating or handling sick animals or birds, nor through personal contact, coughing, or sneezing.
According to the CDC’s website, the great majority of people who get WNV will not develop any symptoms.
Potential health impacts of West Nile Virus infection
Dr. George Thompson, professor of medicine at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, noted in an email to Fox News Digital, “These people would only know they were previously infected if blood antibodies were checked.”
One in every five people will get febrile sickness, which is characterized by a fever as well as body aches, headaches, joint pain, diarrhea, rash, and/or vomiting. These symptoms typically resolve on their own, although some patients may experience persistent weakness and exhaustion months after infection.
According to the CDC, the virus can cause serious neurological diseases such as encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) or meningitis (inflammation of the membranes that protect the brain and spinal cord) in rare cases (approximately one in every 150 infected persons).
When the central nervous system is infected with a virus, those who acquire significant sickness may have headaches, stiff necks, high fevers, disorientation, visual loss, muscle weakness, convulsions, tremors, comas, or paralysis.