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Mississippi Ranks Fifth in West Nile Cases, Experts Discuss Disease-Prevention Efforts

Mississippi ranks fifth for West Nile virus cases in the U.S. for 2024, with four known deaths. The deaths have involved people with severe preexisting health conditions, the Mississippi State Department of Health confirmed to the Mississippi Free Press on Oct. 2. At least 45 Mississippians have contracted West Nile this year, MSDH reports.

West Nile cases are slightly higher in Mississippi this year compared to last year partially because of the drought the state endured in August, Mississippi State University entomologist and extension professor Dr. Jerome Goddard told the Mississippi Free Press.

Having dry weather means standing water is thick, “soupy” and full of “organic material” like grass and dirt, in which mosquitoes like to lay their eggs, he said on Sept. 11. Ditches and malfunctioning septic tanks and sewer pipes can become breeding grounds for mosquitoes along with old tires and buckets, the entomologist added.

“So when it’s dry, there’s more West Nile than when it’s wet. If it rains a lot, you have less West Nile,” Goddard said.

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Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney said the Mississippi Gulf Coast and areas around the Mississippi River are seeing higher numbers of mosquitoes this time of year. West Nile virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis are at their peaks in late summer and early fall, about July through October, he said. Goddard said most mosquitoes die in the winter because they are cold-blooded, meaning they need to get warm from the sun to survive.

“Say it’s March and it’s been a warm winter, people will ask me, ‘Well doesn’t that mean there’s going to be more mosquitoes or worse mosquitoes this summer?’ Well, you don’t know. Nobody knows. It’s not just the winter, it’s the onset of spring and then the pattern of the rains,” he said.

Contracting and Spreading Diseases

The state health officer said people with mosquito-borne illnesses cannot spread them to one another or to animals, but mosquitoes could ingest a person’s infected blood and pass the disease to

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