West Nile has migrated to Alachua County.
The virus was found in two chickens, the city announced Thursday night. While no human cases have been reported, the Alachua County Health Department encourages people to wear bug spray and to drain standing water.
"The risk of disease transmission to humans and animals has increased,” Anthony Dennis, environmental health director of the Alachua County Health Department, wrote in a press release. “Citizens are encouraged to avoid exposure to mosquitoes."
After one person died of the West Nile virus in Pensacola on Wednesday, 23-year-old graduate student Laura Gorham said she started paying more attention to mosquitos.
“Yeah, it’s still five hours away, but disease can spread with a snap of a finger,” she said.
County Disease Control staff member Isabel Anasco said the county tests chickens weekly, because the presence of West Nile virus in the birds can indicate the presence of the disease in the community.
Anasco said the county mosquito control unit also routinely sprays chemicals to reduce the mosquito population countywide.
She said residents should protect themselves. She said it can be as easy as turning over empty flowerpots and containers collecting standing water in residential areas, wearing mosquito repellent and avoiding going outdoors at dusk — the time mosquitoes tend to be most active.
The last documented incident of a mosquito-borne illness in Alachua County was during summer, when a chicken tested positive for Eastern equine encephalitis, according to a press release issued by the Alachua County Health Department July 16.
The symptoms of West Nile are a headache, a high fever and flu-like symptoms, Anasco said. In rare cases, infected people develop neurological symptoms such as memory loss.
