Do we have cases of West Nile virus in Massachusetts this year? We do have a few cases of West Nile virus in Massachusetts in 2022. As of October 4, 2022, the CDC reports that Massachusetts has had five confirmed cases and no deaths this year. This is half the number of confirmed cases in Massachusetts for 2021.
West Nile virus was discovered in mosquito samples in the Northeast about a month ago. On Thursday, a Massachusetts resident was diagnosed with the virus, the sixth human case since the beginning of the month. The Department of Public Health confirmed that this diagnosis is the first human case in someone under the age of 50. Approximately eight U.S. states have been put on high alert, in what is considered peak season for this mosquito-borne illness. Other northeast states include New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Delaware. According to the Centers for Disease Control, now is the time to ramp up or maintain preventative measures against mosquito bites.
According to the World Health Organization, there were 290,000 cases of malaria in 2019. This deadly mosquito-borne illness is nothing new. The parasite that causes malaria was discovered in 1880, by French military doctor, Alphonse Laveran. It took 17 years for Sir Ronald Ross to determine that this parasite was transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. He dissected the stomach tissue of a mosquito, which had fed on an infected patient for four days, and found the parasite therein. Since then, preventive medications and cures have been developed for this mosquito-borne disease. Even so, there are more than 400,000 deaths reported each year. These numbers are what make mosquitoes the deadliest animals on the planet.
Diagnosing, curing, and preventing COVID-19 is a worldwide priority. The sudden prevalence of COVID-19 and movement to cure and eradicate it, have put mosquito-borne diseases on the back burner. However, they persist. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, a mother living in Singapore recently thought that her children were showing symptoms of COVID-19. It began with a fever for her six-year-old daughter, and continued on to two other children. Of course, the first thing she considered was coronavirus. Who wouldn’t? Her children did not have COVID-19.