VALDOSTA — If Katie Butts comes to the door, answer it. 

She only has a 15-minute survey that could determine how West Nile Virus is affecting the Lowndes County community.

Teaming up with the South Health District, Butts, a Valdosta State University biology graduate student, is going door to door to homes in mosquito trap areas to pass out more than 500 surveys. She wants to determine if and how West Nile Virus exposure is affecting Lowndes County residents.

“I am looking at mosquito exposure in Lowndes County and the people of our community to relate that back to the mosquito data that we have,” Butts said.

The survey was born out of mosquito data VSU has already collected using traps placed throughout the county.

Based on the one-kilometer area the traps are placed around, Butts randomly selected more than 500 homes to visit starting next week.

The survey will go through questions asking each participant demographic questions, how they protect themselves from mosquitoes and what times of day they find themselves outside.

Once this information is collected, they will also be asked to give a small blood sample, Butts said.

The South Health District will largely help with this part of the data collection, said Kenneth Lowery, district epidemiologist.

“We’re going to be helping with the blood draws, shipping them off and interpreting the test results for the research project,” Lowery said. “We’re pretty interested to see how the results turn out.”

Butts said they will return the results to the participants after it is analyzed.

If it is negative, the patient hasn’t been exposed to West Nile Virus. If it comes back positive, it only means the patient has been exposed to West Nile Virus at some point in the past — there is no need to rush to the hospital.

Even though both VSU and the South Health District know a lot about area mosquitoes and those that suffer from severe symptoms of West Nile Virus, there isn’t a lot of information about those that have been exposed but don’t experience extreme symptoms.

Butts said most people who have West Nile Virus don’t see any symptoms.

“Since most of the people are asymptomatic and we don’t know the exposure of West Nile Virus in our area, that’s why I’m going door to door and asking people to go to the Lowndes County Public Health Department at appointed times and give a blood sample that is completely free,” Butts said.

She said she hopes to wrap up her study as quickly as possible, but that will of course depend upon the participation of her random sample.

“It’s scary and exciting at the same time,” Butts said. “I’m excited about the data we’re going to be able to get back from that and what it’s going to mean for the community.”

Katelyn Umholtz is a reporter with the Valdosta Daily Times. She can be contacted at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256.