Topeka ? A third Kansas resident has died from the West Nile virus, and eight others have become seriously ill from the virus, health officials said Thursday.

The latest confirmed casualty is a 75-year-old Ford County resident who died in late August. The other two deaths attributed this year to West Nile were a 93-year-old Butler County resident who died in August, and a 91-year-old Sedgwick County resident who died in late September.

State health officials this year have confirmed 76 serious cases of the disease in which the victims have contracted encephalitis, meningitis or acute flaccid paralysis.