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First Confirmed Human Case of West Nile Virus in Delaware This Year

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The West Nile Virus has shown up in a 60-year-old man in Sussex County.

The Wilmington News Journal reports that he was briefly hospitalized in July and then released.

In 2017 a woman in Kent County was confirmed to have contracted the virus.

Dr. Karyl Rattay, Director of the Public Health Division, told the paper that this is an early start in the transmission season and that it could mean more human cases than has been seen in past years.

The mosquito-borne virus is often seen in wild birds and sentinel chickens.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.