Michigan has 6th West Nile virus death this year

Officials report 6th death this year due to West Nile virus in Michigan

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Kent County health officials say an elderly man has died after contracting the West Nile virus, the sixth human fatality from the mosquito-borne disease in Michigan this year.

WOOD-TV says county health officials didn't release other information about the victim, including his name, age and date of death.

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It's the second West Nile death in Kent County this year. Eighty-seven-year-old Lorraine Gutowski died Aug. 29.

The Michigan Department of Community Health says four other people have died from the disease this year. It reports 124 cases of the disease statewide, 80 of them in metropolitan Detroit.

The figures don't include the latest Kent County death.

The state says there were 34 cases and two deaths in 2011.


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