Case of St. Louis Encephalitis 1st in L.A. County in 3 Years

Los Angeles County health officials said Wednesday that last month’s hospitalization of a Lancaster-area man with St. Louis encephalitis was the first confirmed human case of the illness in the county in three years.

The 65-year-old man has since been released from a hospital, said Toby Staheli, spokeswoman for the county Department of Health Services.

Officials also reported Wednesday that mosquitoes carrying the disease have been caught in traps in the City of Industry and Whittier. Abatement programs are under way in those areas, she said.

Staheli said the ill man told officials that he had not traveled outside the Lancaster area before becoming sick, but no mosquitoes carrying the disease have been caught in that area.

The disease, which causes inflammation of the brain and spinal cord, is usually mild in humans. Symptoms usually include fever, severe headache and nausea. In rare cases, it causes confusion, tremors, paralysis, coma and death.

Health officials in May detected the virus in pigeons in the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area in Encino. Between 1983 and 1986, 21 people living in the county became ill and one person died of the disease, officials said.

In humans, the disease is caused by bites from infected mosquitoes. Officials urged residents to eliminate stagnant water that might be mosquito-breeding areas.