CDC confirms virus as cause in St. Louis death

ST. LOUIS -- A 75-year-old St. Louis woman's death earlier this month was due to West Nile virus, making her Missouri's first confirmed fatality from the mosquito-borne illness, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

Cora Walton's death Aug. 7 "has been verified as being West Nile," said Bernadette Burden, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based CDC. "There has been follow-up testing to show that that suspected death was likely West Nile."

Walton's case, added Tuesday to the CDC's West Nile death count, raised the human toll to 21 nationwide.