The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts 1,118 cases of West Nile virus in the U.S. through the third week of August in what is shaping up to be the worst year ever for the disease since it was first detected in the country in 1999. Forty-one people have died from the virus so far this year.

Scientists agree that the spread of West Nile is enabled by global warming, which enlarges the territory of mosquitoes and other organisms that carry the virus.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.