- NEW YORK (Reuters)
- A 73-year-old New York man died over the weekend from the West Nile virus,
the first death this year in the city where the brain-swelling disease
was first detected in the United States in 1999, health officials said.
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- The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said
in a statement on Monday night that the man, who lived in the borough of
Queens, was hospitalized Friday and died on Sunday from encephalitis, a
severe brain inflammation caused by the virus.
-
- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has officially
blamed West Nile for at least 31 deaths this year in the United States.
The disease was previously unknown in the Western Hemisphere until its
appearance in New York in the summer of 1999, when there were 45 human
cases, including four deaths, health officials said.
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- New York officials said three other elderly people have
reported illnesses after being infected by the West Nile virus in the city
this year. All three are hospitalized, one in critical condition, the others
stable.
-
- "As the death of an otherwise healthy 73-year-old
shows, West Nile virus can have tragic consequences for its victims,"
Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said in a statement. He advised New
Yorkers over 50 years of age to take precautions against mosquitoes, which,
if infected with the virus, spread it when they bite humans.
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- An 81-year-old man in Suffolk County on Long Island east
of the city died from the West Nile virus last month, the first death in
the state this year.
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