A Valley man has died from mosquito-borne St. Louis encephalitis, a somber start to the mosquito season.
The Tempe man, in his 40s, had other health problems that likely contributed to his death from the virus on May 14, county health officials said Monday.
Mosquitoes trapped near his home have been sent to the Arizona State Laboratory for testing, though hospital lab results confirmed the cause of death.
Maricopa County health officials are fielding hundreds of complaints and spraying thousands of acres with insecticide, including areas near Tempe Town Lake and flood-irrigation properties in Queen Creek where high concentrations of the blood-sucking insects have been reported.
No other signs of disease-carrying mosquitoes have been detected yet this year in Arizona. Mosquito traps, chicken flocks and dead birds have so far been negative for St. Louis and West Nile viruses.
People are also reading…
"Mother Nature's calling the shots here, not us," said Craig Levy, manager of the state Department of Health Services' zoonotic disease section.
Unlike West Nile, which made its much-heralded state debut in August 2003 and has since killed 21 people in Arizona, the St. Louis version has been around since 1964. Just 40 cases have been confirmed in Arizona, including three deaths since 1985.
Though far more unusual here, the St. Louis virus tends to be more serious than West Nile, with most cases resulting in full-blown encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, compared to about half of the 515 confirmed West Nile cases.
There is no vaccine and no cure for the mosquito-borne diseases. Prevention is key, and health officials worry that Arizonans have let down their guard because West Nile appears to be on the wane after peaking in 2004 with 391 cases and 16 deaths.
"West Nile virus has sort of become old news," Levy said. "It's that time of year when people need to start paying attention. People should not assume that they are immune, because the odds are very, very high that they are not."
