OHIO — The Ohio Department of Health has released numbers on vector-borne diseases, which are spread by fleas, ticks and mosquitos through bites, including West Nile Virus, Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis and Ehrlichiosis.
Throughout the year, the department monitored West Nile Virus, La Crosse and other travel-associated diseases from mosquitos. ODH also tracked Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) and Ehrlichiosis spread by ticks.
In a recent release, the department shared the statistics for its mosquito testing and monitoring throughout 2024. ODH noted that while monitoring for diseases transmitted by mosquitos has ended for 2024 and the numbers are final, monitoring of diseases transmitted by ticks is still pending.
The department, alongside Athens City-County Health Department, Columbus Public Health, Delaware Public Health District, Franklin County Public Health, and Licking County Health Department pools, showed that there were 416,688 mosquitos tested from 67 agencies in 55 counties, pooled into 13,501 samples.
Of these, 1,197 mosquito pools tested positive for West Nile Virus from 41 counties
For La Crosse, there were 1,804 mosquitoes tested from 61 agencies in 51 counties, which were pooled into 950 samples. There were two pools of mosquitos that tested positive for the disease in two counties: Hancock and Morgan.
While the department reported 13 species of ticks that were recorded in Ohio at varying stages of life, the department said the numbers are preliminary for tick-spread diseases. In total, there were 10,482 ticks recorded in Ohio in 2024.
