Multiple people report odd symptoms following mosquito bites in Oklahoma City
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A youth soccer coach and her team say they’ve been experiencing some intense symptoms after being bitten by mosquitoes at an Oklahoma City park, and they aren't the only ones. Medical experts say their symptoms aren’t normal.
If evening after evening on grassy soccer fields has taught Laney Singleton and the youth soccer team she coaches one thing: it’s that they know their bug bites.
“I mean, we've all grown up in Oklahoma,” Singleton said. “All these girls and myself.”
It’s why they can confidently say, whatever has been biting them at Lightning Creek Park lately, is no average mosquito.
“We've never experienced bites like this,” she said.
Singleton showed News 4 pictures of her hand, heavily swollen for several days after she says a mosquito bit her.
She said the pain felt more like what she’d expect from a bee sting, rather than a mosquito.
“It leaves a feeling of almost like a flu shot after you get a flu shot,” she said.
It’s not just her either. In fact, several of the girls she coaches, and their parents, also experienced the same thing.
“I had some calls from parents… golf ball to baseball sized swelling where the bite was located,” Singleton said. “And some girls experienced some headaches.”
News 4 showed the picture of Singleton’s hand to Dr. Melinda Cail, who wasn’t sure what to make of Singleton’s symptoms.
“It doesn't look like your typical mosquito bite,” Cail said. “Usually people will get a little bit of swelling and maybe some redness. But if people are consistently having a big reaction to it, it makes me think that it's probably something else… or maybe some different strain of mosquito. But I think that would be more widespread and we would have seen bites more like that around.”
As it happens, a News 4 employee says the same thing happened to him.
He shared pictures of his hands, also heavily swollen after he says a mosquito bit him in northeast Oklahoma City, nowhere near Lightning Creek Park.
“If a whole lot of people are having the same swelling and reaction, it makes me suspicious that it may be something altogether different,” Cail said.
As for Singleton, she suspects a large drainage ditch running through Lightning Creek Park may be what is harboring the mosquitoes there.
She hopes the city of Oklahoma City can help get rid of them.
“I'm hoping maybe the city can come out and just treat the fields,” Singleton said. “We're really just hoping that our kids can come out and practice in a safe environment.”