SARASOTA, Fla. — A case of a person contracting West Nile virus has prompted a mosquito-borne illness advisory for Sarasota County, the Florida Department of Health said Monday.
According to county officials, the DOH confirmed one case of West Nile virus. It happened in early September, according to the county. That person has already been treated for the illness, the health department added.
West Nile virus (WNV), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is the "leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the continental United States." The CDC says while the virus doesn't have a vaccine or medication to prevent or treat it, most people who are infected don't feel sick.
The CDC says about one in five people infected by West Nile virus will develop a fever and other symptoms. In rarer cases, about one out of 150 people, a person infected with the virus will develop "serious, sometimes fatal" illness.
A mild illness termed West Nile Fever can develop, causing headache, fever, pain and fatigue. Less than 1 percent of people infected develop the most severe form of the disease, termed neuroinvasive WNV.
This year Sarasota and Manatee counties have seen an unusually high number of people testing positive locally for malaria, an illness that is also transmitted via mosquitoes, albeit a different species of the insect.
At the end of June, the Florida Department of Health issued a statewide mosquito-borne illness advisory after four confirmed cases of malaria in Sarasota County. To date, there have been seven confirmed cases throughout the county.
In South Florida, 10 local cases of mosquito-borne dengue virus were reported in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.