High school football player's death blamed on encephalitis

FORT WAYNE -- Health officials determined that a 15-year-old died from a rare mosquito-borne illness.\nChristopher Doyle died Aug. 11 as he was preparing to start his freshman year at Fort Wayne North and play in his first high school football game. Doctors first told his family he had likely died from viral meningitis.\nBut Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health records showed his cause of death was LaCrosse encephalitis, which is similar to the West Nile virus. The News-Sentinel reported Monday it used an open-records request to obtain the report.\nSymptoms of LaCrosse encephalitis, which is fatal in less than 1 percent of cases, include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, drowsiness and confusion. Children under age 16 are at a higher risk of contracting the disease than adults, according to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.\nThe county health agency is investigating another possible case of LaCrosse encephalitis, the newspaper said.\nAbout 70 people a year contract the LaCrosse virus in the\nUnited States, mainly in the upper Midwest. No vaccine is available.\nLaCrosse encephalitis is spread by a different species of mosquito than West Nile and has a complex life cycle involving chipmunks and squirrels.\nDoyle's parents, Jim and Sherry Doyle, said they would work with the county health agency to raise awareness about preventing the spread of LaCrosse encephalitis.