Mosquitos Carry Encephalitis

Children spent recess indoors and residents doused themselves with bug spray Friday after tests found a tenfold increase in mosquitoes infected with the deadly encephalitis virus.

No one had contracted the virus, but the increase in the number of infected mosquitoes to about one in every 100 had officials scrambling.

“It is a very serious disease,” said Dr. Robert Craven of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colo. Encephalitis kills about half the time and can cause brain damage in survivors.