Health officials say the virus, which can be deadly, is probably already present on the southside, and they are gearing up to detect it and prevent its spread. We pretty much will find it,'' said Robert L. Smith, environmental health supervisor for Chesapeake. There were no reported human cases in the state. In areas where mosquitoes carry the virus, very few of the insects are infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Doctors have no drugs or vaccine to fight the virus, which tends to hit elderly people the hardest.
Scientists think West Nile traveled from New York with migrating birds.
Mosquitoes that bit those infected birds probably spread the virus to other animals. Pouring out buckets or toys where rainwater collects, cleaning wading pools and birdbaths weekly and draining rain gutters can also cut back the Asian Tiger, Tree Hole and Culex mosquito populations. Such precautions will also protect against eastern equine encephalitis, another potentially deadly virus transmitted by mosquitoes. That disease, which can affect people in the same way as West Nile, killed at least six horses in Chesapeake and Suffolk last year. People who contract EEE are more likely to die than those with West Nile, but the West Nile virus appears to infect a larger number of people, Jenkins said.