NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – The City of North Myrtle Beach confirms the Department of Health and Environmental Control notified them of a city resident who tested positive for West Nile.
The City was notified by SCDHEC that a person who lives in the 22nd Avenue North area of North Myrtle Beach has the virus, confirms North Myrtle Beach Spokesperson Pat Dowling.
“However, very importantly, it is not known where the person contracted the virus,” Dowling adds. “It is the City’s understanding that during the time when the person was most likely to have contracted the virus, the person was living with their parents in Conway during the flooding that occurred there and not in North Myrtle Beach.”
The person may also have been functioning at a Conway or Horry County work location. As a precaution, and following DHEC advice and protocol, the City of North Myrtle Beach has been spraying twice each week for mosquitoes in a one-mile-radius around the affected person’s North Myrtle Beach address.
The City has also tested and treated all ponds, catch basins and drainage ditches within the same described area. No larvae associated with the type of mosquito that carries West Nile has been found, says Dowling.
The City has conducted Landing Rate Counts – extending a bare arm out for a period of time – for mosquitoes in the described area and no mosquitoes have landed. City personnel have walked the described area looking for dead birds and no dead birds have been found. City personnel have also talked with residents and others within the described area and no one they have talked to has seen or found a dead bird.
The City will continue to pursue this type of work for a period of 45 days, as per DHEC protocol, states Dowling.