It's a stat that bites, South and North Dakota are ranked the top two states, per capita, for people getting the potentially deadly West Nile Virus.
In Hawley, Minnesota a woman has been fighting the bug that has all but taken her out of commission for the past five weeks. Finally she's getting some strength back, and shared with Valley News Live how she couldn't have done it alone.
The beautiful sound of the piano is something that you wouldn't have heard just a week ago at the Hanson home. Andrea Hanson, wife and mom of four, always has her hands full. But when her head started pounding, she had to slow down. "You know I took some IB profen and got through the day even though I was just dragging. But you know my job is important so I wanted to make sure I did it." Says Hanson.
She's not just an incredible musician she has a more important role of homemaker. "I usually think homemaker slash musician, cause first I think of myself as a mom."
The bug that struck was West Nile, it left her in bed for nearly 3 weeks. Her husband took time off work to help out, and then something impressive happened. Family, friends, neighbors, and folks from church started filing in to help out.
Hanson says they did everything and more than she ever expected, "folding my laundry, doing the dishes, cleaning my bathroom, vacuuming the floor, making beds. Anything that they could do to help me was what everybody did. And it was just so amazing!"
Hanson thinks she likely got the virus in her backyard from a mosquito. Since the ordeal she's changed her tune about how she feels about bug spray and deet. Because the last thing she wants to do is hear the whispers down the hall again. Her kids missed their mom when she was stuck in bed,"they really missed me, I could tell. I could hear them say I want my mom to help or I want my mom... I could hear them while I was in bed and it was really sad."
It's been one of the worst years on record for West Nile across the U.S. 147 people have lost their lives to the virus. The best way to combat the virus is to avoid mosquitoes how ever you can.
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