BROOKLYN — The number of New Yorkers with the potentially deadly West Nile virus has grown to 10, health officials confirmed Friday.
The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene quietly updated its online tally of West Nile cases to list four cases in Brooklyn, four in Queens and two in Staten Island.
On Thursday, the chart showed only three cases citywide. A week ago, it listed just one.
"[W]e sent out a press release for the first West Nile virus case of the season," DOHMH spokeswoman Veronica Lewin said Friday in an email. "Other cases are posted on our website. We can't get more specific than borough."
DOHMH posted the new cases online two days after the city sprayed sections of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island with pesticide to kill mosquitoes carrying the virus.
The city announced the first West Nile case of the year in August after a Brooklyn man in his 60s was hospitalized and discharged.
At least one of this year's cases occurred in Howard Beach, Queens, the Queens Chronicle reported earlier this month.
Health providers are required to report patients who are hospitalized with viral encephalitis and meningitis. DOHMH tests samples of those patients' blood for West Nile, according to the DOHMH website.
