By DAVID W. CHEN

day after announcing that an 84-year-old Queens man had become the first New York City resident to test positive this year for West Nile virus, city officials said yesterday that there was no reason to panic but urged the public to take precautions against mosquitoes.

At the same time officials and health experts said that no level of preparation could ensure that the metropolitan area would not experience a rash of West Nile cases similar to that in 1999, when 7 people died and 62 people were hospitalized in the region.

So far this year, there have been 11 deaths out of about 170 cases in more than a dozen states — numbers that health officials said they expected to rise quickly in the next few weeks.

The final tally for 2002 locally and nationally, officials say, will be guided by a factor beyond anyone's control, nature.

Statistics aside, the Queens case is a reminder that West Nile is not a foreign, ephemeral phenomenon that made an anomalous splash one year and then vanished.

Instead, health experts say, the virus is here to stay — one more thing to be mindful of, to be on guard against, year after year.

"We know the virus is here," said Dr. Richard C. Falco, medical entomologist at the Louis Calder Center of Fordham University in Armonk, N.Y. "Even doing all you can as a municipality doesn't ensure that there's going to be no cases of West Nile virus," he said, "because you're at the mercy of mosquitoes and the weather."

The virus has historically been found in southern Europe and much of Africa, the Middle East and south and central Asia.

In the United States, the virus has spread rapidly since it was first detected in New York in 1999. It has shown up as far west as Colorado and Wyoming, and experts expect it to reach the West Coast.

Yesterday, Illinois health officials said a 67-year-old resident had become the first person in the state to die of the virus. Eight of the 11 deaths nationwide were in Louisiana; the remaining two were in Mississippi.

The virus is transported by mosquitoes, which become carriers by biting infected animals and spreading it to uninfected ones. Migrating birds can contribute to the transportation network, too, after contracting the virus from mosquitoes in one location, then transferring it to new mosquitoes elsewhere. Periods of drought, followed by heavy rain, have tended to yield more mosquito-borne diseases, Dr. Falco said.

While there is no human vaccine, most people infected by West Nile virus experience mild, flu-like symptoms or nothing at all, experts say. But the elderly and people with weak immune systems are more vulnerable and can develop meningitis or encephalitis.

Such was the case with the first New York victim this year, according to the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The man, who is from the Rosedale section of Queens, became ill with a low-grade fever and diarrhea on July 20, was hospitalized on July 27, and subsequently developed encephalitis. He is in critical condition, said Dr. Marcelle Layton, assistant commissioner of the department's office of communicable disease control.

Last year, there were seven cases of West Nile virus in New York City requiring hospitalization, but no deaths. In 2000, there were 14 cases and 1 death in the city, and in 1999, 45 cases and 4 deaths. In those years, the first human cases were typically detected around the same time as this year, Dr. Layton said.

Yesterday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and health officials urged residents to take such preventive measures as getting rid of all stagnant water where mosquitoes might breed; wearing long-sleeved shirts or pants if outside between dusk and dark, when mosquitoes are busiest; and applying insect repellent.

The city also announced that it would begin ground-based spraying of pesticides, from 8:30 p.m. today to 2 a.m. tomorrow, weather permitting, in some sections of northern Queens. For more information, residents may call toll-free (877) 968-4692.

"We're doing things that you have to do to cut down on the mosquito population," Mr. Bloomberg said on his weekly radio program yesterday. "And people can — have to be — part of this."

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