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Three Missourians have died from West Nile virus so far this year as state health officials warn they are seeing a big rise in cases of the mosquito-borne virus. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services issued a warning late Thursday, urging residents to take precautions, such as wearing insect repellant with DEET and eliminating standing water around homes, which is where mosquitoes breed. (Munz, 10/9)

The station said its general manager and morning DJ, Kevin "Kevy Kev" Russell, died Thursday afternoon after contracting the disease five weeks ago. "About five weeks ago, it seems Kevin contracted the West Nile Virus. He had a fever he couldn't get rid of, so when his temperature spiked and stayed there, he was admitted to the hospital," the station said. "His condition deteriorated and it became obvious after a while, he was not going to get better again." (Fong, 10/9)

Following last weekend's heavy showers, Brevard County Mosquito Control is working to eliminate possible watery breeding grounds and reduce the chances of any more dengue cases buzzing up. "I'm hoping at this point that the spike is behind us," said Joseph Faella, director of Brevard mosquito control. "We're optimistic that it's slowing down, although with this extra water, yeah, we may see a little bit of an influx in water-holding containers." (Pedersen, 10/9)

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has noted several new H5N1 outbreaks and detections in commercial poultry flocks, backyard flocks, and wild migrating birds. The uptick in H5N1 activity signals that the avian influenza season is fully under way, with states in the Midwest and the South mostly affected in the new reports. (Soucheray, 10/9)

Infectious H5N1 avian influenza virus can persist in raw-milk cheeses while they are being made and for up to 120 days of aging, depending on the milk's acidity (pH) level, according to a report published yesterday in Nature Medicine. "Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses have recently spread to dairy cattle, with high levels of virus detected in milk from affected animals, raising concern about the risk posed by unpasteurized dairy products consumed by humans," wrote the Cornell University–led research team. (Van Beusekom, 10/9)

Researchers are calling for revision of the World Health Organization pertussis (whooping cough) case definition after finding that both it and a modified definition miss many lab-confirmed cases in preschoolers. (Van Beusekom, 10/8)

An international team of researchers today reported promising results from a phase 1 trial of a novel vaccine designed to protect against typhoid fever and non-typhoidal Salmonella infections. The team, led by investigators from the University of Maryland (UM) School of Medicine, reported that the trivalent (three-strain) Salmonella conjugate vaccine (TSVC) produced a strong immune response, and was safe and well-tolerated, in a small group of healthy US adults. The findings from the trial were published today in Nature Medicine. (Dall, 10/8)

Microplastics are a known threat to overall health — and eating and drinking from plastic containers, like water bottles, could be a great offender, researchers suggest. A new study published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials analyzed 141 existing scientific papers on microplastics and nanoplastics from single-use plastic water bottles to gauge how much plastic people may be ingesting. (Stabile, 10/9)