Three new human cases of West Nile in Hamilton

Hamilton has four confirmed or probable human cases of West Nile this season, whichare among 33 human cases in Ontario.

The City of Hamilton Public Health has three more human cases this week, making two probable and two confirmed cases this summer.There have beena total of 20 traps with mosquitoes testing positive for the virus this year.

A woman in her 20s is recovering at home from a probable case of West Nile virus earlier this month.

A woman in her 50s was recently found to have the virus after she attempted to donate blood, said Dr. Hamidah Meghani, Hamilton's associate medical officer of health. She was not showing any symptoms at the time.

Another woman in her 70s is recovering in hospital with a probable case of West Nile. A man in his 80s is also recovering at home with a suspected case of the virus, she said.

Surveillance this week has shown that seven out of 30 pools in the traps contained mosquitoes testing positive for the virus.

So far this year, there have been two positive pools in Dundas, four in Central Mountain, one in lower west Hamilton, two in lower central Hamilton, eight in lower east Hamilton and four for upper Stoney Creek.

For more information, visithamilton.ca/westnile.