South Dakota is one of the five states that the Centers for Disease Control cited as West Nile hot spots in a press briefing on Tuesday. Mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus (WNV) were first discovered in South Dakota in 2002.
The following year, the state experienced a severe outbreak of illnesses due to the virus. There were 1,039 human cases and 14 deaths. Since then, no other year has seen more than 229 cases. Through August 22, 2012, South Dakota has seen 82 West Nile illnesses and 1 death.
In the eleven years that West Nile virus has caused human illnesses in South Dakota, Brown county and its largest city, Aberdeen, have been at the center of the outbreaks.
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Aberdeen is the third largest city in South Dakota with about 26,000 residents. Another 10,000 live in Brown County. The James River runs through the county from north to south and divides the county in half.
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Nicholas Hill, a disease surveillance manager and epidemiologist with the South Dakota Department of Health, speculated upon a number of reasons for Brown County's West Nile issues.
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