The region’s first death from West Nile Virus has been recorded. A 69-year-old man who died in Lincoln, Nebraska, a week ago was suffering from West Nile, health officials confirmed Friday. It was the first known case of the disease in Lancaster county, and only the fifth in the state of Nebraska. Four other people, in the Grand Island area, were diagnosed with West Nile after going to emergency rooms with what they thought were symptoms of severe flu, but they’ve all recovered. Iowa’s only human case was a man who also thought he had the flu, with fever, muscle aches and splitting headaches. He’d recovered a couple weeks before state health officials this week confirmed it’s our first and so far ONLY case of the mosquito-borne disease in a person.
