Gainesville has first positive test of West Nile Virus

The City of Gainesville has received it first positive results of West Nile Virus.

City Manager Barry Sullivan says the West Nile positive mosquito was trapped on the 500 block of Davis St, across Lindsay St.

Sullivan explains, "with the last few weeks of rain, the mosquito population has grown we were catching more mosquito's and then we had our first positive test".

One Gainesville resident said he will be more careful when going out, Manuel Guerrero said, "I do have kids, and I get eaten alive by mosquito's if there's any mosquito's within the area and so are my kids, so yeah that's something to be worried about".

From early spring up until October the city sets out traps and collects samples of mosquitoes to test for West Nile and other mosquito borne diseases.

Although the city hasn't started to spray yet, Sullivan says there is a three steps process before the city decides to spray for mosquitoes.

First they educate the public, then set out mosquito larvicide dunks, then spray.

"if we get three straight weeks of a mosquito found with West Nile or a human contracts it anywhere in the county then we would start spraying".

Chris Tidwell, a nurse and house supervisor at North Texas Medical Center said most people usually don't develop symptoms for West Nile Virus. he said "80 percent of people have West Nile and don't even know it because symptoms are so mild".

He emphasized to always use mosquito repellent, "make sure that they wear OFF, something that has a strong DEET concentration and just try to stay away from anywhere that has a strong concentration of mosquito's".