Posted 8/17/2004 05:09:00 PM by Douglas

Welcome to Phoenix! It may be 102ºF, but at least it's too hot for mosquitoes, right? Right?!? What about West Nile Epidemic carrying mosquitoes? No?

With triple-digit heat and nearly nonexistent rainfall, Phoenix seems an unlikely spot for this year's West Nile virus epicenter. Yet, federal health officials say Arizona is the only state where the mosquito-borne virus is an epidemic.

"Minnesota may be the land of a thousand lakes, but we're the land of thousands of abandoned swimming pools," says Will Humble, head of disease control for the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Those swimming pools, plus irrigation canals that slice through parts of the city, patio misters and lush lawns designed to remind transplants of gardens they left behind have inadvertently turned neighborhoods into oases for mosquitoes.

Well that's just super. Come on, Arizona Department of Health, at least you can put a positive spin on things.

So far this year, at least 290 of the nation's more than 500 West Nile cases are in Arizona; three of the 14 deaths were in Arizona. Nearly all the cases have been in the state's most populous county, Maricopa, which includes the Phoenix metro area.

State health officials estimate at least 30,000 Arizonans may have the virus without knowing it. Some people never have symptoms at all. Only about 1 percent of West Nile victims develop the potentially dangerous inflammation of the brain or spinal cord — meningitis or encephalitis.

Boy, that would look great on the travel brochures, wouldn't it? How 'bout the license plate? "Welcome to Arizona: Only 1% of you will develop permanent neural damage."

Good Luck, Kids!