FARGO — Cass County is facing one of the nation’s highest rates of West Nile virus cases this year, with 16 reported infections, ranking it ninth among U.S. counties.

North Dakota has the third-highest number of cases nationally and the most in the state since 2019, with 78 infections reported. Officials attribute the increase to a summer they describe as having “the worst mosquito conditions of the last 20 years.”

“We expect every year to see that increase in cases, typically mid to late August,” said Amanda Bakken, an epidemiologist with the state Department of Health and Human Services. “We did start to have a smaller bump in cases earlier in the year, but it was a wetter year, and we did have a lot higher mosquito populations in certain areas of the state.”

In any given year, 80% of

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