State records 2 West Nile virus deaths in Allen, Porter counties

INDIANAPOLIS -- West Nile virus has killed two Indiana residents, the first deaths from the mosquito-borne disease reported in the state this year, health officials said Monday.\nThe deaths in Allen and Porter counties come amid a late summer surge in human West Nile, with 25 new cases reported since last week. The State Health Department announced nine new cases Monday: five in Lake County, two in Porter and one each in Dubois and Allen counties. They pushed the number of human cases in Indiana this year to 39, the most since 2003.\nThe deaths are the first in Indiana since a Lake County resident's death in September 2005.\nMosquitoes remain active until the first hard frost of the fall, usually in October or November, the agency said. It urged Indiana residents to take steps to guard against bites until then.\n"The potential for further human cases is there, until the first hard frost," Health Commissioner Dr. Judith A. Monroe said.\nThose over age 50 are at greatest risk for serious illness and death from the virus, but those of all ages have been infected, she said.\nA small number of individuals can develop a severe form of the disease with encephalitis or meningitis and other neurological syndromes, including a form of muscle paralysis, the health department said.\nThe virus usually causes a milder form of illness, West Nile fever, which can include fever, headache, body aches, swollen lymph glands or a rash, the agency said.\nThe health department did not provide any details of the two people who died, but the Post-Tribune of Merrillville, Ind., quoted family members of a 76-year-old Porter County man, Philip B. Philips, of Valparaiso, as saying he had contracted the virus. He died Thursday.\nMore than half of the state's confirmed cases of human West Nile virus have been in northwest Indiana -- six in Porter County and 16 in adjacent Lake County.\nThe virus is transferred to humans from mosquitoes, which become carriers after biting infected birds.