DENVER -- The first Colorado death from West Nile virus was confirmed Tuesday morning.

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The death occurred in Weld County, but further details were not immediately released due to federal patient confidentiality rules.

The Fort Collins Coloradoan reported that the victim was a 77-year-oldGreeley woman who died Friday from complications associated with the virus. The newspaper reported that the woman died at Northern Colorado Medical Center's in-patient hospice.

So far, more than 72 cases of West Nile virus have been confirmed in Colorado this summer.

Colorado is not the first state to record a death from the virus this summer. A 68-year-old man and an85-year-old woman, both from Texas, and an Alabama woman in her 80s have already died.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedon its Web site that Colorado has the most human West Nile cases ofany state and more than a third of the country's total.

In humans, the disease can cause flu-like symptoms and swellingof the brain that can be fatal. Most people bitten by an infectedmosquito do not become ill.

Colorado health officials detected 13 cases in humans last year.None were fatal. The virus also was found in 380 horses, 138 birds,one cat and a sheep.

West Nile virus first emerged in New York in 1999 and killed seven people. It continued to spread westward, finally hitting the Rocky Mountain states last year and killing 284 people nationwide. Put another way, one out of every 18 people who tested positive for the virus died last year.