In an effort to stop the spread of the fatal West Nile Virus, officials of the City of Ardmore, Oklahoma are now trapping and testing mosquitoes to see if they can locate an insect carrying the virus. After seven reported cases of the virus from Carter County this year, with one resulting in death, the city has been setting traps all over town for almost a month now.

The trap is a bait of grass mixed with water and allowed to sit for five days, then placed into a pan. A battery-powered fan is installed to suck the mosquitoes up a tube, which is seated over the pan leading up to netting.

"All areas of town where we have trapped the mosquitoes has been negative," said Ardmore Street Superintendent Bruce Cypert. While they know that the species of mosquito carrying the virus is indeed present in Ardmore, the ones that they have caught so far do not carry the disease.

After the mosquitoes are trapped and frozen for two hours until they die, they are then sent to a lab every week at the university. The process is limited to a minimum of 50 mosquitoes per jar tested at a time, as it is expensive. However, the whole thing does not cost the city even a single dime, as the State University has offered its free service for it.

The West Nile virus mainly infects birds, but can also infect humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. About 80% of the cases show that the infection causes no symptoms. However, for others, the virus causes flu-like symptoms known as West Nile fever, with symptoms including malaise, fever, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, eye pain, headache, myalgia, diarrhea, rash and lymphadenopathy.

What makes this virus fatal is that it is able to pass the blood-brain barrier, and the most serious effects of which are encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) and meningitis (inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord). The symptoms develop 3 to 15 days after infection, lasting three to six days. No effective treatment is known.