Staten Island Fatality Not West Nile Virus

Tests showed Thursday that a man who died after reporting symptoms similar to those of the West Nile virus did not have the disease, but the city remained vigilant for signs of the potentially deadly illness.

Fear of the mosquito-borne virus, which killed seven people in the New York area last summer, is causing subtle changes in life on Staten Island, the only city borough where the disease has shown up this year. Two dead crows were found to have carried the virus.

At the Friends day-care center Thursday, the ball pit was empty and the wavy red slide was abandoned by the toddlers whose giggles can usually be heard. Workers at the wooded Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve armed themselves with cans of bug repellent.

Adriana Robotti told her three daughters to stay out of their pool because the city had sprayed the insecticide Anvil in the area to kill mosquitoes. She was not only concerned about the pesticide but also mosquito bites.

“I feel a little like a mosquito myself--trapped,” Robotti said Thursday.

Concerns were heightened after a 71-year-old man visiting from South Carolina died on Staten Island after being hospitalized with West Nile-like symptoms. He died at the hospital Wednesday.