Forty West Nile virus cases now have been confirmed in Evanston as the mosquito-borne outbreak becomes the worst of its kind in Illinois in 85 years.
In the last two weeks, there have been 10 new Evanston cases confirmed and no new deaths by the state Department of Public Health. But with the onset of fall, local health officials said the virus should spread more slowly.
“The incidence of West Nile does seem to be leveling off,” said Mary Scott, the city’s communicable diseases coordinator. “However, we’re still getting some reports of cases.”
As of Tuesday, West Nile was confirmed in 599 people and caused 33 deaths statewide. This makes it the largest major outbreak of a mosquito-transmitted disease in Illinois since 1917 — when the state recorded 2,300 cases of malaria.
The West Nile caseload on Monday surpassed the 1975 St. Louis encephalitis epidemic, which infected 578 people and resulted in 47 deaths.
Illinois has been the hardest-hit state this year, with about one-fourth of the nation’s 2,493 human West Nile cases and 125 deaths. The state confirmed Evanston’s first human with the virus in mid-August.
The first local death was an 85-year-old woman who died Sept. 18. In neighboring Skokie, 42 residents have tested positive for the virus and one has died.
Skokie’s health director, Lowell Huckleberry, attributed a decrease in West Nile cases in recent weeks to cooler weather.
“The number of cases is coming in slowly now compared to before,” he said. “Most of the cases we see are those of patients being infected earlier on, with the symptoms only appearing now.”
For most people, the headaches, fever and rashes associated with West Nile fade after a week or two. But the virus is more serious for the elderly, who can develop encephalitis. All of the state’s deaths have been of people older than 60.
The state usually tests for West Nile only if a patient has been hospitalized, leading local officials to suspect official numbers do not reflect reality.
Cases of West Nile have clustered in two areas of Cook County this year — Skokie, Morton Grove and Evanston in the north, and Oak Lawn, Evergreen Park and nearby Chicago neighborhoods in the southwest.
The same two areas also were hit hard by the St. Louis encephalitis outbreak in 1975. State Public Health Director John R. Lumpkin announced Monday he would seek federal assistance to study why those two areas have been recurring hot zones.
This year’s West Nile outbreak is expected to end when the first hard frost ends mosquito activity.
Historically, most states experiencing a glut of West Nile cases one summer see numbers drop considerably the following year. But both state and Evanston officials have said they will prepare for another difficult summer in 2003.
The West Nile virus first appeared in the United States in 1999 in New York, and since then it has spread south and west across the country. California recorded a single human case this year, though most western states have yet to see the virus.
Local officials advise residents to clean up standing water in places such as bird baths, flower pots and the ground. Also, bites can be minimized by wearing loose-fitting, long-sleeved clothing, avoiding the outdoors during morning and evening hours, and using insect repellent containing 25 to 35 percent DEET.
