NEPA Vital Signs - Summer Fall 2018 - 20

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West Nile Virus &
The Risk To The Elderly
West Nile Hits Home

What are the symptoms?

In the summer of 2017, my 76-year-old father, a native of northeastern Pennsylvania, started to feel ill. He had previously been a
healthy, active, working man who enjoyed golfing and spending
time with family. At the end of August he began to feel very tired,
weak, and confused. His body ached and he lacked his typical
energy. On September 1st, he awoke with confusion, tremors, and
difficulty speaking. He went to the hospital where he fell into a
coma and required ventilator support for his breathing. Testing
of his brain and blood did not reveal the cause right away. On
the day the results of his spinal fluid came back we were shocked
and devastated. West Nile Virus had infected his brain.

West Nile virus usually infects humans during the peak season
of late summer to early fall. About 75% of people infected never
develop symptoms and do not even know that they have the virus.
If the infected person becomes symptomatic, it will usually be
within 2 days to 2 weeks of contracting the virus. The symptoms
of the less severe form of West Nile are usually fever, tiredness,
headache, back pain, muscle aches, rash, and decreased appetite.
Symptoms typically resolve on their own within a few days but
can take up to one month for all of them to go away.
Of those people who become infected with West Nile, only a very
small number - around 1% - will develop severe, life-threatening
involvement of the brain and spinal cord known as West Nile
neuroinvasive disease. A person with West Nile neuroinvasive
disease will usually have the same symptoms as the less severe
form as well as disorientation, confusion, tremors, paralysis, and
even coma and death. Ten percent of people will die, especially
if paralysis is present. Of the survivors, only 1 out of 3 will make
a full recovery.

What is West Nile Virus?
West Nile is a virus that can be passed to humans through the
bite of a mosquito that carries the virus. West Nile was originally
discovered in the West Nile province of Uganda, Africa in 1937.
The first cases in the United States were reported in 1999 after
an outbreak in New York City. Since then, it has been reported
in all 48 continental states in the U.S.

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