The Nassau County Department of Health has detected West Nile Virus in mosquitoes in Kings Point and Plandome Manor, according to a press release.
The mosquitoes were collected on July 12, and no human cases have been discovered this year.
The department said it will continue to monitor the virus and step up efforts to prevent its spread.
“The Nassau County Departments of Health and Public Works will continue their mosquito control efforts by inspecting breeding sites and applying larvicide throughout the county,” said the department in the press release. “Additional larviciding will take place in Kings Point and Plandome Manor.”
Residents are advised take steps to both reduce mosquito populations and reduce the risk of bites, including eliminating standing water, disposing of used tires that mosquitoes can use as breeding grounds, cleaning swimming pools, cleaning gutters and trimming vegetation and debris from yards and pond shorelines.
The department also recommends the wearing of long pants and sleeves, wearing mosquito repellent when outdoors and maintaining screens in home windows and doors as ways to prevent bites.
West Nile Virus was first detected in North America in 1999, has since spread across the continental United States and Canada and is transmitted by mosquitoes who contract the virus from dead birds, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Most people who are infected do not suffer symptoms, but about one in five develop a fever and less than 1 percent contract serious neurological diseases such as encephalitis or meningitis, according to the CDC.
