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3,000 severe cases and 284 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• This year's count of severe cases rose by more than 30 percent in the past week, and is on track to surpass 2002, the CDC's Dr. Lyle Petersen said in a call with reporters on Wednesday.
• While the height of mosquito season has passed, infections are expected to continue into October, and severe illness and death reports are expected to keep coming in for months, CDC officials said.
• West Nile virus was first diagnosed in Uganda in 1937, but no cases were reported in the U.S. until 1999 in New York. The virus gradually spread across the country.
• Only about 1 in 5 infected people get sick. Early symptoms can include fever, headache and body aches. Some recover in a matter of days. But 1 in 150 infected people will develop severe symptoms including neck stiffness, disorientation, coma and paralysis.
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Parts of SD experience driest summer on record
• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Some parts of South Dakota have experienced their driest summer on record as drought persists throughout the state.
• The cities of Sturgis in the west, Winner in the south central part of the state and Sioux Falls in the southeast set records for dryness during the "meteorological summer," which is June through August, according to the National Weather Service. Winner got only about 3 inches of rain, and Sturgis and Sioux Falls less than 3 inches.
• All three cities are in areas the U.S. Drought Monitor map shows as being in extreme drought. More than two-thirds of South Dakota is in severe, extreme or exceptional drought.
• Sturgis' previous record-dry summer was 2006, when the city got 3 inches of rain. Winner's previous record was about 3 1/3 inches in 1970. Sioux Falls' previous record was set more than a century ago when about 3½ inches of rain fell in 1894. Just two years ago, Sioux Falls had its wettest summer on record, with about 22½ inches of rain.
• Heat has exacerbated the dry conditions. The period of the past 12 months ending in August was the warmest year on record in Sioux Falls, at more than 5 degrees above normal, the weather service said. This summer also has been one of the warmest in the Sioux Falls area and also the Black Hills region in the west, the (Continued on page 20)
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