Over the past nine years, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services has been monitoring the West Nile Virus, which is spread through the bite of an infected mosquito. According to their records, the worst year so far was in 2003, the second year of statistics. During that year, there were 1,994 cases of West Nile in the state of Nebraska, with 27 deaths being linked to the virus.
The next year, there were only 51 cases, and no deaths. However, numbers went up again for a couple of years, and have since dropped. The year with the lowest number of reported cases was in 2008, when there were only 47 cases reported, but there was one death. Two years have reported no deaths attributed to the virus, which was 2004, and again in 2009.
HHS monitors live birds, examines dead birds and traps mosquitoes to track the virus each year. So far this year, there have been eight confirmed individual cases in six different counties across Nebraska, including one each in Scotts Bluff and Cheyenne Counties.
There are mosquito pools in several counties that have also tested positive, including 15 in Sheridan County and 7 in Garden County. Dawes County has collected mosquitoes, but none have tested positive so far.