By News Staff
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BREWSTER, Mass. (AP) - Health officials say they've confirmed Cape Cod's first-ever case of a human-biting mosquito infected with eastern equine encephalitis.
Officials told the Cape Cod Times that the virus was found in a mosquito caught in a trap at Nickerson State Park in Brewster on July 19. Test results came back Friday.
Gabrielle Sakolsky, an entomologist with the Cape Cod Mosquito Control Project, says eastern equine encephalitis was found in mosquitos in 2006 in mosquitoes trapped in Dennis and Barnstable, but those mosquitoes were a type that bites birds.
The EEE virus is potentially fatal for humans and its symptoms include chills, fever, headaches, vomiting and diarrhea.
There haven't been any human cases in the state this year, and state officials have done aerial spraying for mosquitoes in several communities.
