HELICOPTERS WERE USED Monday to spray the pesticide malathion in parts of the Bronx and Queens. Since the outbreak was reported last week, two elderly people in Queens have died from the disease and three other cases have been confirmed, officials said.Those three victims were in serious condition but showed signs of improvement.

In all, 37 people are now suspected of having the viral infection, which had not been found in the New York metropolitan area before the current outbreak. The infection is transmitted into the bloodstream via mosquito bites. Symptoms usually show up five to 15 days after a bite from a carrier mosquito and range from a slight fever or headache to high fevers and convulsions.
 
Unlike the more serious Eastern Equine encephalitis, most people recover from the St. Louis strain if infection is caught in time, but the disease can be fatal to those with compromised immune systems, such as the elderly.