More Reports of West Nile Cases

EAST TEXAS — State officials on Friday reported 26 new confirmed cases of West Nile virus in Texas since Thursday and four more deaths in Cooke, Ellis, El Paso and Fayette counties. The death toll in Texas from West Nile illness stands at 47 people. One new case of West Nile fever was reported Friday in Gregg County, while two new cases were reported in Smith County, health officials said.

One new case of the more severe West Nile neuroinvasive disease was reported in Rusk County. According to the Longview News-Jpurnal, all other East Texas counties reported no new incidents of either form of the illness Friday. This has been the worst year for West Nile virus in Texas, which has seen about half of the country’s deaths from the illness this year. The Texas Department of State Health Services reported at least 536 cases of neuroinvasive West Nile, considered the most serious form of the illness because it affects the nervous system.

That figure was up from the 523 cases of neuroinvasive West Nile reported Thursday. That’s already worse than in all of 2003, when Texas had 439 neuroinvasive cases and 40 deaths.