CDC Confirms Rare Virus Caused Death

A virus never before seen in the Western Hemisphere caused at least one of the deaths in New York City attributed to St. Louis encephalitis, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the CDC, said scientists there finished analyzing DNA from tissue from one of three New York City residents who have died of a mysterious mosquito-borne virus in recent weeks. Officials said the unprecedented discovery of the virus in the United States was no cause for alarm, as the pesticide spraying now underway should work against mosquitoes that carry the West Nile virus.