ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — The Adams County Health Department is ramping up efforts to protect people against West Nile virus.
This is the first year the department is offering free repellant at their Westminster, Broadway and Commerce City offices. The Adams County Health Department said August and September typically see the highest number of cases of West Nile virus in people. Last year in Colorado, there were 634 reported human cases and 51 deaths.
The health department attributed the high amount of cases to the rain last year.
“Colorado is about three and a half months and that's how long our vector season lasts,” said Ferah Shahid, the environmental health manager for Adams County Health Department.
To combat the virus during the last few weeks of the season in mid-September, the health department is offering free repellant with picaridin.
“Picaridin is really a good one to use as well as DEET,” Shahid said. “Any insect repellent, we always recommend that either has DEET or picaridin in it. DEET is a little bit off-putting sometimes just because of the smell. Picaridin, what studies have shown, is that it lasts longer. It's just as effective as DEET.”
Shahid said the amount of mosquitos relies heavily on rainfall.
“So last year was sort of an outlier year for us because we had so much rainfall that really increased our trap numbers,” Shahid said.
Summer in Colorado was very wet last year, leading to more than 600 cases throughout the state.
CDPHE data shows:
- 35 total cases in 2020 with one death.
- 176 total cases in 2021 with 12 deaths.
- 207 total cases in 2022 with 20 deaths.
- 634 total cases in 2023 with 51 deaths.
2024 is much hotter and drier, which is a big help to keep the West Nile case numbers down in Adams County. However, final numbers are not confirmed yet for this year.
“We just wanted to do a little bit extra this year to try to provide those to our to our Adams County community to help prevent West Nile this year,” Shahid said.
To learn more about where to get repellant from Adams County Health Department, click here.