For those of you thinking that I'm about to spew some spam urban legend crap, pay close attention: 3 birds with serious diseases have been removed from The Mirage hotel pool. 2 birds had West Nile, and one had the even more dangerous St. Louis encephalitis. While humans cannot contract the diseases from the birds directly, they are passed via mosquitos, which are in abundance right now because of the current monsoon season and all of the thunderstorms and standing water. It's very difficult for a mosquito to pick up the virus from ducks, but it's "an indicator that the viruses have found a foothold in the community," according to the newspaper article.

I have received a lot of phone calls and e-mails from our community members indicating that they will be visiting in the coming weeks, so I thought I'd put out a general warning to you all. The link to the article is below, and you'll notice that the article downplays the significance of the finding. While I'm not trying to scare anyone, I think that they are downplaying it on purpose because of the potentiality of this finding affecting tourism, as well as the fact that they don't want to face litigation from The Mirage if this story affects their sales.

So, I'm just putting the facts out there; do with them what you will.

Bettie