By Cindy Schroeder
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A Boone County resident is believed to be the first person from the Tristate, as well as the first Kentuckian, to be stricken with the West Nile virus this year.

The person, who developed symptoms of the mosquito-borne illness within the past two weeks, is listed as a "probable'' case by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health Services.

That means state laboratory tests for the virus were positive but must be confirmed through additional testing by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Dr. Sue Billings, an epidemiologist with the Kentucky Health Services Department.

Billings said the person sought treatment after showing symptoms of the virus about two weeks ago. Those can include fever, headache, muscle aches and chills.

The Boone County "case was not hospitalized and is doing well,'' Peggy Patterson, a spokeswoman for the Northern Kentucky Independent District Health Department, said Tuesday.

She declined to elaborate, citing the recently adopted federal health privacy act.

Public health officials are trying to increase awareness of the West Nile virus and encourage residents to take precautions, including:

• Wearing mosquito repellent with DEET.

• Eliminating sources of standing water where mosquitoes can breed.

• Avoiding outdoor activities between dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes are likely to be biting.

"People should not panic, but we want to make them aware that the virus is circulating,'' Billings said.

Horses or birds with West Nile virus have been reported in nine Kentucky counties this year, including Kenton County. On Monday, Northern Kentucky health officials confirmed that mosquitoes trapped in a Boone County pool recently tested positive for the West Nile virus.

So far, Ohio has one confirmed and six probable West Nile cases in humans, said Pete Gemmer, spokesman for the Hamilton County General Health District. The closest human case is in Licking County, just east of Columbus.

In Southwest Ohio, signs of the virus have been found in birds and mosquitoes.

Last year, a 31-year-old Covington man became ill on Aug. 28 with what was later confirmed to be West Nile virus, Patterson said. That person recovered. A 79-year-old Clermont County man who was the Tristate's first confirmed case of West Nile virus last Aug. 23 later died.

In 2002, Ohio had the nation's third-largest outbreak of West Nile virus, with 31 deaths and 441 probable and confirmed cases.

E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com