BATON ROUGE (AP) — State health officials
report 11 new cases of West Nile virus this week, with one additional
West Nile-related
death.
That brings the total number of West Nile cases in Louisiana this year to 382, with a death toll of 17.
Most people bitten by a mosquito carrying the virus show no symptoms, but some develop flu-like West Nile fever, and a few
develop serious "neuroinvasive" infections of the brain or spinal cord that can lead to paralysis, brain damage or death.
Four new neuroinvasive disease cases were
reported this week were in Bossier, Calcasieu, St. Helena and Winn
parishes. Five
West Nile fever cases were in Bossier, Cameron, Concordia, East
Feliciana and Orleans parishes. Two asymptomatic cases were
in Grant and Pointe Coupee parishes.