- FRANKFORT, Ky. (Reuters)
- The mosquito-borne West Nile virus has killed an 84-year-old Kentucky
man, state health officials said on Tuesday.
-
- The death, the first recorded in Kentucky, brought to
14 the number of confirmed or suspected fatalities linked this year to
the virus which has been found in animals or people in 37 states since
the first recorded U.S. outbreak in New York in 1999.
-
- The Kentucky victim, not immediately identified, lived
in Union County in western Kentucky south of Evansville, Indiana and died
Monday, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health Services said.
-
- He had multiple health problems and had been in a hospital
since early August. The agency said the virus has been found in 19 horses
and 73 birds across Kentucky so far this year.
-
- On Monday health officials in Texas and Missouri said
the deaths earlier this month of a 52-year-old Houston woman and a 75-year-old
woman in St. Louis were being investigated as likely West Nile cases.
-
- The previous 11 deaths listed by the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention included eight in Louisiana, two in Mississippi
and one in Illinois.
-
- West Nile has been reported for decades in Africa, the
Middle East and parts of Europe. After showing up in the United States
three years ago it has spread to every state east of the Rocky Mountains.
-
- Most human infections are mild and far fewer than 1 percent
of mosquitoes carry the virus.
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