Middlesex County Man 1st Human West Nile Virus Case This Summer
BOSTON (CBS) – The first human case of West Nile virus in Massachusetts this summer has been found.
The Department of Public Health announced Wednesday that "a resident of Middlesex County north of Boston in his 60's" was diagnosed in late July and is still recovering in the hospital.
Read: West Nile Virus Fact Sheet
"Based on this finding, health officials have raised the WNV threat level to "Moderate" in Arlington, Belmont, Cambridge, Somerville, and Watertown," DPH spokeswoman Anne Roach said in a statement.
Roach also said the first case of West Nile in a horse this summer has been confirmed in Ludlow in western Massachusetts.
The threat level there has been raised to 'high.'
Mosquitoes infected with West Nile have been found in 48 communities from nine counties so far this year.
There were six cases in Massachusetts residents in 2011 and one in a horse.
