SAN DIEGO — San Diego County health officials are urging residents to take precautions against mosquito bites after West Nile virus cases surged to their highest level in a decade, prompting emergency spraying operations in neighborhoods identified as having elevated risk.

The county has confirmed 11 cases of West Nile virus so far this year, a stark increase from last year, when no cases were reported in the county at all. Of those 11 confirmed cases, four people have required hospitalization.

In response to the surge, county vector control officials deployed spraying trucks early Friday morning in Coronado, an area identified as having a particularly high concentration of cases, with plans to return Saturday at 1 a.m. to spray again. Signs alerting residents to the spraying operation have been posted throughout the affected neighborhoods, with a map outlining the treatment area spanning from 2nd Street to Ocean Boulevard and from F Avenue to Glorietta Boulevard.

Vector control officials explained the basis for targeting that specific area. "Identified an area that we see as having a higher risk of West Nile virus, based on finding positive mosquitoes within a limited area," officials said.

West Nile virus typically........

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