West Nile virus has been detected in Brookings and Brown Counties.  Nick Hill with the State Department of Health said that even though much of the state is drier then it has been in past years, the type of mosquito that carries the virus doesn’t need a lot of moisture to survive.



Hill said that the cases so far have come from pool testing, not from human infections.



Hill added that to prevent mosquito bites and reduce the risk of West Nile, use mosquito repellents, limit time outdoors from dusk to midnight when Culex mosquitoes are most active and support local mosquito efforts.

In South Dakota peak transmission of West Nile is July through early September.  Since the first case in 2002 there have been 1,759 cases reported and 26 deaths.