Wahpeton Mosquitoes Test Positve for West Nile

The City of Wahpeton has announced that a pool of mosquitoes tested positive for West Nile virus on Thursday. The City of Wahpeton warns its citizens to take extra precautions to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. The mosquito most common for transmitting West Nile is the Culex Tarsalis. Two human cases were reported the week of June 2, and none for the rest of June. Those two cases were in Ransom and Ramsey counties. 62 cases of West Nile were reported in 2017. According to the North Dakota Department of Health, West Nile virus (WNV) was first isolated from a patient in the West Nile district of Uganda in 1937. The United States' first WNV cases occurred in New York in 1999. North Dakota's first case was reported in August 2002. Cases have been reported every year since then.