The Buckingham

Photo Credit: www.ph.lacounty.gov

The West Nile virus epidemic is continuing to increase.

On Sept. 11, the CDC announced that their have been reports of 2,636 cases of West Nile virus in the United States, with 118 deaths.  This is up from the 1,993 case and 87 deaths reported one week prior.  The virus has been detected in humans in all but five states, and has been reported in humans, bird, or mosquitoes in every state except Hawaii and Alaska.

About more than half of the reported cases involve neuroinvasive disease, which is the highest number of such cases since the epidemic in 2002.

Death from the virus is expected to increase as well.