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Colorado Leads Four Corners States in West Nile Cases

Cynthia Goldsmith
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Public Domain
An electron micrograph image of the West Nile virus

Colorado has the fourth-highest number of reported cases of West Nile virus in the country this year, and Larimer County in northern Colorado leads the state with 28 of those.

The Greeley Tribune reports that experts are puzzled about the prevalence of the disease, because the total number of mosquitoes is reportedly down. Meanwhile, a 63-year-old New Mexico man recently became the state’s first fatality from the virus in 2016. New Mexico has had just two cases in total, compared to Colorado’s 61 cases with three deaths. Arizona has had 38 cases and two fatalities, and Utah only three cases with no fatalities. Infections reportedly tend to peak in September.

Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
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