The state Health Department confirmed Monday, in a press release, Mississippi’s first human case of West Nile virus for 2008, in Lincoln County. This seems to be the second reported human case in the United States since this year’s inception, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Symptoms of West Nile virus include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, a rash, muscle weakness, or swollen lymph nodes. The virus is usually transmitted to humans and animals through bites from mosquitoes, which become infected when they feed on infected birds. The most exposed to the virus are the elderly or people with weakened immune systems.

There were 136 human cases of West Nile virus last year in Mississippi, four of them resulting in death.

To prevent getting the virus, Mississippians are urged to remove any sources of standing water, avoid mosquito-prone areas, especially between dusk and dawn when they are most active, wear protective clothing such as long-sleeved shirts and pants when in mosquito-prone areas and apply a mosquito repellant according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Those interested in more information about West Nile virus or other mosquito-borne illnesses are invited to visit the MSDH Web site at www.HealthyMS.com/westnile or call the West Nile virus hotline from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at 1-877-978-6453.