{"id":10187,"date":"2025-08-27T16:21:01","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T21:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=10187"},"modified":"2025-08-27T16:21:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T21:21:04","slug":"west-nile-alert-issued-as-two-fatalities-confirmed-in-minnesota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2025\/08\/27\/west-nile-alert-issued-as-two-fatalities-confirmed-in-minnesota\/","title":{"rendered":"West Nile alert issued as two fatalities confirmed in Minnesota"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.startribune.com\/west-nile-alert-issued-as-two-fatalities-confirmed-in-minnesota\/601462245\">Minnesota Star Tribune<\/a> State is reaching peak season for risk of West Nile, the mosquito-borne virus that so far has been confirmed in 20 people and blamed for two deaths in 2025. Risk of mosquito-borne West Nile virus is increasing amid a hot and rainy summer season, the Minnesota Department of Health warned this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The state so far has confirmed 20 cases, including two deaths, which occur when the infection causes encephalitis or meningitis \u2014 swelling of the brain or surrounding tissue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While those numbers aren\u2019t unprecedented in Minnesota, people should take precautions at this \u201chigh-risk time of year,\u201d said Elizabeth Schiffman, supervisor of the state Health Department\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.state.mn.us\/diseases\/vectorborne\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"vectorborne diseases, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">vectorborne diseases<\/a>&nbsp;unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s important to prevent mosquito bites when people are enjoying time outside while the weather is still nice,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the best way to avoid getting West Nile virus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Risks appear greatest right now in western and central agricultural regions of the state, breeding grounds for the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-019-43246-y\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Culex tarsalis mosquito, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Culex tarsalis mosquito<\/a>&nbsp;that is the primary spreader of the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>About 1 in 5 infected people will endure symptoms such as headache or fever and 1 in 150 will suffer severe complications, according to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.state.mn.us\/diseases\/westnile\/basics.html\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"Health Department, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Health Department<\/a>. Risk of severe illness is greatest among the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Minnesota Star Tribune State is reaching peak season for risk of West Nile, the mosquito-borne virus that so far has been confirmed in 20 people and blamed for two deaths in 2025. Risk of mosquito-borne West Nile virus is increasing amid a hot and rainy summer season, the Minnesota Department of Health warned this week. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mosquito-bourne-diseases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10187"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10188,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10187\/revisions\/10188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}