First Cases of West Nile Reported in San Bernardino Area

Steven Cuevas: West Valley Vector Control, which covers hundreds of square miles in western San Bernardino County, found the dead birds in Ontario earlier this month. Both tested positive for the virus.

Humans can contract it through mosquitoes, too. The elderly and people with compromised immune systems are most at risk. In severe cases, West Nile can be fatal, but most people infected with the virus get symptoms that feel like a really, really bad case of the flu.

Brian Reisinger: You know, we're seeing this kind of resurgence of mosquito populations, which is a little bit earlier than normal.

Cuevas: Brian Reisinger is the outreach coordinator for West Valley Vector Control. He says the virus turned up a little earlier than usual because mosquitoes did, too.

Reisinger: Typically we see June and July, into August, is when we see our biggest populations. But the way it's looking on our graphs now, it shifted to a lot earlier. So we're thinking it's going to be a pretty big year for mosquitoes, as far as their populations are concerned.

Cuevas: The biggest sources of mosquito breeding this year are neglected backyard swimming pools. In the last couple of months, Vector Control air surveillance has spotted about 400 pools ripe for breeding. Home owners who don't clean up their stagnant pools can face fines of a thousand dollars a day.