In Northeast Ohio, late summer brings familiar routines — backyard cookouts, packed ballfields, and humid nights. This year, it has also brought a growing number of mosquito bites that carry more than a nuisance.
What's happening?
According to Ideastream Public Media, local health departments reported that two residents, one in Medina County and another in Cuyahoga County, were diagnosed with West Nile virus in August.
The publication cited Ohio Department of Health data, which stated that, as of August 21, six people in Ohio had tested positive for the disease in 2025.
According to Vector Disease Control International, West Nile is the most common mosquito-borne illness in the lower 48 states. While most infections pass unnoticed, the virus can lead to fever, body aches, and, in rare cases, swelling of the brain.
Older adults and people with weakened immune systems are most at risk of severe outcomes, according to the CDC.
Dr. Amy Edwards, an infectious disease expert at University Hospitals in Cleveland, said the risk in Ohio is very different today than it was a generation ago.
"For people who grew up in Ohio, mosquitoes and ticks didn't used to carry disease in Ohio," she told Ideastream Public Media. "If you look overall in the United States, the rate of mosquito-borne illness is going up."
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Why is this outbreak of West Nile virus concerning?
The shift in recent outbreaks reflects more than chance. Mosquitoes flourish in heat and water. Longer, hotter summers mean longer breeding seasons, while heavier rain and flooding — exacerbated by a warming climate — create stagnant pools where larvae thrive.
Meanwhile, increasing temperatures across the country expand the range where these mosquitoes can survive.
"It's always worse in the summer because that's when the mosquito population is at its highest," Edwards said.
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I'll do whatever it takes 👍 Communities across the country have been confronting similar changes. Ticks carrying Lyme disease are appearing in places once too cold to sustain them. Dengue fever has reemerged in Florida.
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As temperatures climb, the map of insect-borne illnesses is redrawn, and regions once considered safe are seeing diseases that used to be confined to warmer climates.
What can be done about West Nile virus?
For now, health officials stress prevention: insect repellent, long sleeves, avoiding the outdoors at dawn and dusk, and clearing standing water from yards. Local mosquito control programs continue to treat high-risk areas, though that surveillance can only go so far.
At a broader level, efforts to curb extreme heat and reshape urban landscapes can reduce the environmental conditions mosquitoes exploit.
Adding tree cover cools overheated neighborhoods, while better drainage limits stagnant water. Such changes are not just environmental investments, but direct safeguards for community health.
For Ohioans heading outdoors this summer, vigilance is essential. However, the longer fight — preventing the production of planet-warming pollution that increases temperatures and allows disease-carrying mosquitoes to thrive — will determine whether these late-summer warnings become a new seasonal ritual.
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