ALAMEDA — The first indication this year of the West Nile virus in Alameda County was found in the city of Alameda.
Pools of mosquitoes which the county’s Mosquito Abatement District sent to University of California, Davis, late last month came back indicating one pool tested positive with the virus.
The mosquitoes were gathered from traps set up in a back yard at the corner of Sheffield Way and Sheffield Road near Tillman Park and on Packet Landing near Shoreline Park at Bay Farm Island.
“We got word on (Monday) and immediately put more traps out there,” said John Rusmisel, the Mosquito Abatement District manager.
Nine more traps were set at various locations in Bay Farm Island with a concentration on the two identified locations.
Mosquitoes from the latest samples tested using an in-house equipment showed no sign of the virus, Rusmisel said.
Such preliminary testing gives heads up about any sign of virus but for further testing, the samples have been sent to the university which has more sensitive equipment. It takes anywhere from a week to three weeks to give back results, Rusmisel said.
Mosquitoes which feed off birds infected with the virus transfer it to humans. Not everyone bitten by the mosquitoes gets sick from the virus and those who do usually will have flu-like conditions. An even smaller fraction of infected people may have serious neurological and deadly complications from the virus.
No human cases were ever found in Alameda County. The single case of a San Leandro woman who was infected by the virus and became ill is believed to have been imported from another county where she was visiting with family in Yuba City.
“People shouldn’t get anxious but should take precaution,” Rusmisel said.
Mosquitoes carry the virus and infect people or other animals.
As part of the district’s ongoing daily treatment program to prevent mosquitoes larvae from developing into adult mosquitoes, the district’s vector control technicians are out in numbers since Wednesday treating areas where mosquitoes are likely to breed, including inside utility and communications vaults underground where the positive mosquitoes are suspected to have come from, Rusmisel said.
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