CHICAGO, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Public health officials confirmed three more human cases of West Nile virus in Illinois Thursday, all in the Chicago area.
In Missouri, four residents of St. Louis and St. Louis County have tested positive for probable West Nile and five cases are suspected in Ohio, the first in both states.
Illinois last week reported two cases of the virus. The three new cases involved a 70-year-old man in southern Cook County hospitalized in critical condition with encephalitis, a 49-year-old Will County woman who spent a week in the hospital with encephalitis, and a 41-year-old Chicago woman discharged after five days of treatment for West Nile encephalitis.
"West Nile virus can be a serious threat to the health of Illinois citizens," said Gov. George Ryan. "However, there is no cause for panic."
Public Health Director John Lumpkin said there likely will be more human cases in the state but said the chance of developing serious illness from a mosquito carrying the West Nile virus was remote.
About one in 150 infected people will develop serious complications.
Authorities in Missouri and Ohio were waiting for confirmation of their cases from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory in Fort Collins, Colo.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services received preliminary blood test results Wednesday and officials said it would take about a week to confirm whether the mosquito-borne virus had invaded the state.
The suspected cases involve two St. Louis men, 42 and 61, and two 36-year-old women from St. Louis and suburban Webster Groves. The 61-year-old man remained hospitalized and the others were undergoing treatment.
"We can't confirm that it's West Nile," a spokeswoman for St. Louis University Hospital said. State health officials have tested nearly 100 people for West Nile this summer and the probable cases would be the first in Missouri if confirmed.
A 38-year-old Massachusetts woman confirmed with West Nile developed encephalitis and meningitis after visiting St. Louis County in July but was expected to fully recover, public health officials said.
In Ohio, authorities suspect the state's first cases are a 26-year-old Columbus man and a 76-year-old woman from Brook Park near Cleveland. Cuyahoga County officials were awaiting lab reports on three other suspected cases.
"We have what we presume will be confirmed cases," said J. Nick Baird, state health director.
West Nile mainly infects birds and is spread to humans by mosquitoes. Most people who contract it suffer mild flu-like symptoms but the virus can cause potentially fatal swelling of the brain.
At least 156 cases and seven deaths have been confirmed in 37 states and the District of Columbia. The disease was first reported in the West Nile region of Uganda in 1937 and was detected in New York in 1999. West Nile has been confirmed in Illinois, Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Washington, D.C., this year.
