Two people have died after contracting West Nile virus in New Jersey, the fourth and fifth deaths from the mosquito-borne disease in the United States this year.
The state health department announced the deaths. In a statement Friday.
Little is known about the victims other than they have been identified as “elderly people.”
One lived in Cumberland County, the other made Mercer County his home.
The dead are: Two virus-related deaths in WisconsinThe state health department announced Thursday: One in Illinoislocal health officials reported Tuesday.
There have been a total of eight West Nile cases in New Jersey this year, with seven people hospitalized with encephalitis or meningitis.
Tests showed that the donated blood tested positive for the virus, and two people were diagnosed with infection.
The six latest cases are among residents 50 and older across the state, including Bergen, Passaic, Camden, Somerset, Hudson and Middlesex counties.
Two cases of West Nile virus have been reported this year, in Middlesex and Union counties.
New Jersey has reported 14 cases and one death in 2023.
There have been six cases of West Nile virus in New York this year, four in Queens and one each in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
A total of 20 cases have been reported across New York state, including seven in Suffolk County and two in Westchester County.
So far 289 cases The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed Tuesday that West Nile virus outbreaks have begun in 33 states this year.
West Nile virus has been infecting New Jersey residents for the past 25 years, but state officials said the first cases were reported much earlier this year, in early July.
One case of Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE), a rarer and more deadly mosquito-borne disease, was also confirmed in the Garden State this summer, the first case since 2019.
