LONDON

Horse in east Elgin County tests positive for West Nile

CTV London Published Wednesday, August 26, 2015 12:41PM EDT

This 2006 photo made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a female Aedes aegypti mosquito acquiring a blood meal from a human host at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. (The Canadian Press/AP - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - James Gathany)

Text:

Elgin St. Thomas Public Health says a horse in eastern Elgin County has tested positive for the West Nile virus.

The case is only the second horse in Ontario to test positive in 2015, and the first in Elgin County since 2004.

So far, no mosquito traps in the county have tested positive for the virus this year, but the organization says it will continue to monitor for West Nile through its mosquito trapping program.

The health unit continues to recommend that people protect themselves from being bitten by removing standing water, covering up and using repellants with DEET.

About 80 per cent of people who become infected with the West Nile virus do not feel ill, but those that do generally experience mild flu-like symptoms.

Fewer than one percent of people infected get seriously ill.