By the time Labor Day rolls around each year, Charles Hammer said it’s safe to assume the West Nile virus has made its way into Athens County’s mosquito population.
But for the first time since an Ohioan first tested positive for the virus in 2002, Hammer, the Athens City-County Health Department administrator, can’t be sure.
The health department hasn’t tested mosquitoes for West Nile virus this year because federal budget cuts curtailed a $265,000 statewide testing program through the Ohio Department of Health.
The local department typically tested mosquitoes through the state program each summer, but now that the state is no longer footing the bill, Hammer said testing is essentially out of the question because it would cost the department at least $1,000 just to establish a relationship with a private lab.
“We could say with certainty that (the virus) was in an area and it would generally precede human infection,” he said. “(The testing) was kind of like a warning system … which we don’t have the money to do.”
But the testing is important because the public should get the chance to know for sure, said Kelly Johnson, an Ohio University associate professor of biological sciences.
“I think it’s important to monitor the disease and if we are having a particularly big year for the mosquitoes, we know to warn people,” Johnson said.
In 2012, 26 agencies performed such tests, according to the Ohio Department of Health’s website. Just seven agencies are continuing to test for the virus.
Hammer said local health department workers have been doing more fieldwork to dispose of inadvertently manmade mosquito breeding grounds — anywhere from plastic swimming pools to cans of soda.
Pollock and Hammer agreed it’s been an ideal summer for the transition. The county experienced a wet summer this year and those conditions were not optimal for the virus, Pollock said, adding that, statewide, there have only been four human cases of West Nile this year as of Aug. 28.
In 2012, there were 121 human cases.
In the last 11 years, Hammer said he’s only heard of one human case in Athens County that resulted in hospitalization.
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