The State - News from Nov. 9, 1988

A San Bernardino County man was partially paralyzed by encephalitis, contracted in an area where the virus was detected in test chickens earlier in the year, county health officials said. They declined to identify the 69-year-old victim. The man entered a hospital in late September and lapsed into a coma for a short time before regaining consciousness, officials said. He suffered partial paralysis on one side but recovered enough to leave the hospital Oct. 19. Health officials have since confirmed that the man contracted St. Louis encephalitis, which is spread by mosquitoes. His was the first reported case of encephalitis in a human this year in California. The virus was discovered in blood samples taken from a flock of chickens monitored by health officials near the San Bernardino-Colton border, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.