An 89-year-old Boulder man has become the third person in Colorado to died from West Nile virus this year, state and county health officials said.
The elderly man reported he first became ill around July 5, according to the Boulder County Public Health officials.
He developed a brain infection as a result of the virus and died on August 9, county officials said.
“This is a very unfortunate reminder of just how potentially serious West Nile virus infection can be,” Heath Harmon, a Boulder County health official, said in a statement.
The two previous deaths were in Denver — a 63-year-old who died August 2 and a 77-year-old who became infected in late July, died on August 4. Their names were not released.
A total of 93 human cases of West Nile virus have been reported in Colorado as of August 15, health officials said.
State officials warned earlier this summer conditions were looking bad for the disease as lots of Culex mosquitoes — which carry West Nile — were showing up, and lots of them were infected with the virus.
West Nile first showed up in Colorado in 2002, and the following year 63 people died of it.
The virus typically is less deadly as years pass, health officials say, because people who are exposed to it develop resistance – and most people infected never feel symptoms.
Only a small percentage go on to get potentially deadly encephalitis.
Staff writer Katy Human can be reached at 303-954-1910 or khuman@denverpost.com.
