Encephalitis case is reported

A man from Newton, N.H., is this year's first human case of Eastern equine encephalitis in the region, New Hampshire health officials said yesterday.

"We can't say exactly where he was bitten by mosquitoes, but the whereabouts of the person place him during the incubation time in the Newton area," Dr. José Montero, New Hampshire state epidemiologist, said by phone yesterday.

Newton, a rural community just over the Massachusetts border from Merrimac, has been a hot spot for the virus. Disease trackers have detected it in mosquitoes there the past three years, Montero said. In September 2005, 20-year-old Newton resident Kelly Labell died from the disease, which has symptoms that include high fever, headache, a stiff neck, and fatigue.

Yesterday, her father, Richard Labell, 51, said he was told that a neighbor a mile up the street is the latest person to be infected. Officials declined to identify the individual, who has been hospitalized in Massachusetts since Aug. 11.

"Last year, they trapped mosquitoes with EEE just across the street from my house," Labell said.

Massachusetts health officials have reported no human cases of Eastern equine encephalitis or West Nile Virus this season. The state's latest data show that the number of mosquitoes detected with Eastern equine encephalitis is considerably lower this summer, with just 20 pools testing positive so far, compared to 79 by this time last August. Last year, there were five human cases of the virus, with two fatalities.