Consider yourself forewarned: West Nile virus will return in 2003, and state and local officials are already working to inform the public to take precautions while stepping up their own efforts to fight the deadly disease.

"There's no reason to think it won't be back," said Karen Yates, the insect-borne disease program coordinator for the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services in Jefferson City, Mo.

Yates said they are planning on about the same level of infection as last year, when the virus -- which is carried by mosquitoes from animals to humans -- caused 168 human illnesses and seven deaths.

She also said that the harsh winter won't offer any reprieve either because the species of mosquito that carries the virus, culex pipiens, isn't eradicated by cold weather. Culex pipiens "overwinter," she said, meaning that they become dormant in winter and live off their last blood meal, which could have been infected with the West Nile virus.

In most cases, the virus causes flu-like symptoms, but in worst-case scenarios it can act like meningitis and encephalitis, causing potentially fatal brain swelling. There was one human case of West Nile virus in Cape Girardeau County last year, but the man recovered.

The state will continue to monitor the disease with help from local officials as well as push an informational campaign for people to protect themselves. They can do so by not allowing free-standing water to accumulate in their yards and to report dead birds, mainly crows and blue jays, to health officials, she said.

Locally, the city of Cape Girardeau is taking an active stance this year -- the second full spring and summer that the virus has been present in Missouri.

'Get right to the source'

Public works director Doug Leslie said the city for the first time will put larvicide in standing water such as along roadways and in low-lying areas.

"We want to get right to the source, as they are born," Leslie said.

The city also will stick to its level of spraying three times a week a mixture of the insecticide malathion with a mineral oil carrier to kill the mosquitoes. The city increased that last year after starting the season by spraying just twice a week. Both programs are expected to start in about two weeks, Leslie said.

"Certainly, this is in response to West Nile," Leslie said.

Jane Wernsman, a registered nurse and assistant director of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center, said people should also avoid mosquito bites any time they are outdoors. Individuals should apply insect repellent to exposed skin and to clothes, since mosquitoes sometimes can bite through that. The most effective repellents contain DEET.

If there is one change, it may be that the number of horses who die from West Nile should decrease this year, said Dr. Linus Huck, a horse veterinarian in Fruitland. He said that's because a vaccine, which was given a conditional license last year, has been given full approval this year. It is said to be 95 percent effective.

Last year, Huck saw 11 horse deaths and 126 horses that were treated for West Nile in the county and surrounding counties, he said.

Billy Evans of Jackson was one of those horse owners who lost a horse to the virus. He estimated it cost him $10,000 when his brood mare died, one of the first horse deaths in the county.

"That's why I got all the vaccinations done early this year," he said. "I hope now I don't have to worry about it."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137