West Nile Virus Detected In Chatham

CHATHAM -- For the first time since public health officials began a testing program, West Nile virus has been detected in Chatham. The virus was found in a sample of mosquitoes collected in town on Tuesday. As a result, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has raised the official risk for transmission of the disease from "low" to "moderate."

People can contract the disease through mosquito bites, though most infected people show no symptoms. About 20 percent of those infected get mild flue-like symptoms, and a small percentage of people become seriously ill with a high fever, neck stiffness, muscle weakness, confusion or tremors. The risk is higher for people over 50 years of age; no medicines are available to treat West Nile. Between 2001 and 2025, 273 people were reported with WNV infection in Massachusetts. Twenty of these people died. On Thursday, the state announced this year's first human case of West Nile in a man in his 90s who was exposed in Middlesex County.

Crews with the Cape Cod Mosquito Control Project were deployed to Chatham Thursday and Friday to treat storm drains and containers holding standing water in areas around the positive sample.

West Nile Virus has been previously detected on the Upper Cape and in other Cape towns, as well as in rural and urban areas in other parts of the state.

To reduce the risk of exposure to mosquito bites, people are urged to limit outdoor activity from dusk to dawn, to apply insect repellent, and to wear clothing that covers the skin. Around the home, drain standing water in gutters, drains, watering cans and other containers, and change the water in birdbaths frequently.