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Sep 8, 2007 8:34 am US/Eastern
NYC Reports First West Nile Case This Year
Officials Don't Know Where Patient Got Infected
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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NYC has seen its first case of West Nile Virus infection in 2007.
CBS
Officials were pressing New Yorkers to guard against mosquito bites after a 41-year-old woman was diagnosed with the city's first known human case this year of the sometimes deadly West Nile virus.
It wasn't clear where the woman became infected, the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said. The insect-borne virus has been found in mosquito pools in all five of the city's boroughs this summer, but the Brooklyn woman traveled outside the city during the two weeks before she fell ill with a fever, headache, fatigue and other symptoms in mid-August, the agency said.
Hospitalized on Aug. 25, she is now recovering at home, the health department said. Her name was not released.
West Nile made its first appearance in the Western Hemisphere in New York in 1999, when it killed seven people and sickened more than 60. It has since spread across the country, and fatal cases have been reported around the nation this year.
Most people infected with the virus experience mild symptoms or none at all. But in rare cases, West Nile can cause convulsions, vision loss, paralysis and other serious problems, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control.
To combat the virus and the bug bites that cause it, the city Health Department recommends using mosquito repellent, wearing long pants and sleeves outdoors in the evening, and keeping window screens intact, gutters cleaned and pools chlorinated.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
