Last night I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about the mosquitoes with West Nile Virus (WNV) that have been detected in our  zip code and in the zip codes of Prospect Heights and Prospect Park.

I even checked the symptoms on the Center for Disease Control website. I don’t want to freak anyone out but here goes: “It is estimated that about 20% of people who become infected with WNV will develop West Nile fever. Symptoms include fever, headache, tiredness, and body aches, occasionally with a skin rash (on the trunk of the body) and swollen lymph glands. While the illness can be as short as a few days, even healthy people have reported being sick for several weeks.”

Sometimes it’s  asymptomatic.

I was also stressing about the fact that my son’s window was open. What if a WNV mosquito happens in and stings him? Panic…

We’d had the windows open all day because the temperature was so much lower than it’s been and there was a nice breeze and cross-ventilation.

Now I’m officially freaked out about WNV. No open windows today. Which is sad, because it feels like a nice day for open windows.

Go here to see what the CDC suggests to prevent mosquito bites.