Cabell County Health Department director Omayma Touma told the Huntington city council Friday the county had no plans to spray the area in an effort to control the West Nile Virus carried by the mosquito.
Touma said the state checked a 20 mile radius of the area and has found one infected bird. She said there is no money in the state budget for spraying. The Health Department is recommending that residents wear rubber gloves, place the dead bird in a plastic bag and throw it away.
“Cabell County doesn’t have the equipment or the personnel, so if there is going to be spraying, it will have to come from you,” Touma told the council. She said West Virginia has no reported human cases of the virus, while Ohio has reported two.
Stan Mills, sanitarian with the health department, said that the media has blown the West Nile Virus way out of proportion to its actual dangers.
“You would have a much higher chance of getting killed on your way to work than you do of dying of the West Nile Virus,” said Mills.