Colo. West Nile cases stand at 7
Ellen Miller, Special to the Rocky
Published July 25, 2007 at midnight
Two more human cases of West Nile virus were confirmed by Colorado health authorities Tuesday, bringing to seven the number of people in the state sickened by the mosquito-carried virus this year.
No one in Colorado has died of the illness this year.
A Mesa County woman in her 40s is the first victim reported on the Western Slope this year, and health officials said she was hospitalized.
Mesa County Health Department spokeswoman Kristy Westerman said she didn't know where the woman may have been in the county when she was bitten by a mosquito with the virus.
In Adams County, the Tri- County Health Department reported that a 32-year-old woman who spends up to 28 hours a week outdoors in a rural area was confirmed to have West Nile.
Tri-County spokesman Gary Sky said that the woman had not been hospitalized.
Dr. Mick Aduddell, director of the Mesa County Health Department, said that the risk of contracting West Nile this summer appears similar to last year's risk, when 38 cases were reported, including two deaths, in Mesa County. Statewide, 345 cases were reported, including seven deaths.
Aduddell said that Colorado's case data from the past four years show that about 85 percent of people contracting West Nile are infected between July 1 and the second week of August.
He emphasized taking preventative measures, including wearing insect repellant containing DEET, Picaridin or oil of lemon Eucalyptus; dressing in long sleeves and pants in areas with mosquitoes; and avoiding being outside at dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes are most active.
State officials said that federal funding cuts have forced Colorado to scale back testing of mosquitoes for the virus and help for county health departments confronting a booming mosquito population this year.
An expected 22 percent cut in federal funding - from $800,000 last year to $625,000 in 2007 - forced state officials to reduce the time they spend monitoring mosquitoes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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