For the second time this summer, the Massachusetts Department of Health has detected the presence of West Nile virus in mosquitoes collected in Edgartown.
A mosquito collected from the Veterans Park area in Vineyard Haven has tested positive for West Nile virus, the Tisbury board of health confirmed Thursday. Town health officials said there is no cause for alarm.
A mosquito found in Oak Bluffs this week has tested positive for West Nile virus. It is the third infected mosquito found on Martha’s Vineyard this summer.
According to the state department of health and human services, the infected mosquito was collected Tuesday. Earlier this month, mosquitoes with West Nile were found in West Tisbury and Tisbury.
A mosquito caught on Monday in the town of Tisbury has tested positive for the West Nile virus, confirmed Thomas Pachico, health agent. It is the second Island appearance of the virus this year. The town was notified Thursday evening.
Two weeks ago I wrote a letter to this paper in an attempt to raise the level of concern about West Nile fever and other mosquito-borne diseases coming to this Island.
In my letter I urged a program of mosquito control which included aerial spraying and elimination of areas of stagnant water where mosquitoes breed.
State public health officials have confirmed that a dead crow found in Tisbury last Tuesday has tested positive for West Nile virus, marking the first appearance of the potentially deadly disease on the Vineyard.
An Edgartown bird has tested positive for West Nile virus in the first such case confirmed this year on the Vineyard.
A crow was discovered by a hotel restaurant worker and shipped to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health by Edgartown health agent Matt Poole.
Reached by phone yesterday, Mr. Poole said the worker spotted the crow corpse under a tree near the intersection of Main and Winter streets in downtown Edgartown. Mr. Poole said the discovery is confirmation of what is already assumed: that the virus exists on the Vineyard.