Combating West Nile Virus

WMBD/WYZZ - East Peoria - Spring is just around the corner and that means so is mosquito season and the possibility of West Nile Virus. Officials at the Tazewell County Health Department took a proactive approach to the problem by holding a West Nile Virus conference Thursday in East Peoria. At the conference, people received training on how to apply mosquito pesticides themselves to help lessen the mosquito population and the possibility of West Nile. Mosquitoes thrive in standing water, so there are simple ways to combat the problem, even without training. “Just make sure that you dump out any tires with rain water in them; your bird baths, your dog bowls, anything thats going to hold water,” says Melissa Goetze, an environmental health specialist for the Tazewell County Health Department. “You can help yourself and help the community by dumping water out at least every five days.” The first case of West Nile Virus in Illinois was reported back in 2002. Twenty cases of West Nile were reported throughout the state in 2008.