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Contact: Cindy Parmenter
Director of Communications
(303) 692-2013 - Office
(303) 891-8382 – Pager
Lori Maldonado
Public Information Specialist
(303) 692-2028 – Office
(303) 921-8598 – Cell
For Immediate Release Friday, October 1, 2004
COLORADO RECEIVES $150,000 TO ASSIST WITH WEST NILE
VIRUS COSTS
DENVER – The Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment announced Friday that Colorado will receive $150,000 from the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help pay for West Nile virus
prevention efforts in the state this year.
Douglas H. Benevento, the department’s executive director,
said the department received official notification Friday morning that the
funds are to be allocated to the state.
“This is very good news,” Benevento said. “The department
has been working hard, with the strong support of the state’s congressional
delegation, to obtain federal funds to assist those Colorado counties that
have been hardest hit by West Nile virus this year. These are the counties
that have had to spend local funds on prevention efforts.”
Assisting in the effort were U.S. Senator Wayne Allard,
R-Colorado; U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colorado; and U.S.
Representative Scott McInnis, R-Colorado.
Benevento said the funds will be prorated and divided among
the state’s counties that have had West Nile virus cases this year.
Of the 265 West Nile virus cases recorded in Colorado this year, 125 have
been in Mesa County where all three of the state’s deaths this year from
the virus have been recorded. The latest West Nile virus death involved a
79-year-old Grand Junction man and was announced Thursday by the Mesa
County Health Department.
The other two deaths also involved elderly Grand Junction
residents.
Totals of West Nile virus cases recorded in other Colorado counties this
year have included Adams, 11; Archuleta, 2; Boulder, 14; Delta, 19; Denver,
3; Douglas 1; El Paso, 2; Fremont, 4; Garfield, 5; Gunnison, 1; Jefferson,
7; Kit Carson, 2; La Plata, 15; Larimer, 19; Logan, 5; Montezuma, 3;
Montrose, 9; Morgan, 1; Park, 1; Phillips, 2; Prowers, 3; Pueblo, 3; Rio
Blanco, 1; Sedgwick, 1; and Weld, 6.
In mid-August 2003, the Department of Public Health and Environment
received a $500,000 grant from CDC to assist in the state’s West Nile virus
prevention efforts last year. Those funds also were prorated and divided
among affected Colorado counties.
In 2004, Colorado recorded 2,947 West Nile virus cases and
63 deaths from the disease.
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