A West Nile virus infection is suspected in a Walla Walla County resident, health officials said Friday.
Harvey Crowder, public health administrator for the county, said this morning that while confirmation testing is underway, it looks to be the first human case of the disease diagnosed in the county since the virus first appeared in the U.S. in 1999.
The patient, who has not significantly traveled out of the area, went to a physician with the most severe form of the illness, Crowder said today. However that person has been discharged from a local hospital and is recovering at home.
The virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, is commonly found in birds and can be passed to horses and people, noted Crowder in a news release.
Eighty percent of people infected with the illness will experience no symptoms, but do develop immunity to future infections. About 20 percent of humans will develop West Nile fever, with a low-grade fever, rash, mild headache, muscle aches, joint pains and other low-grade symptoms.
Fewer than 1 percent of those infected will develop severe disease with an infection of the brain. Out of that number, 10 percent will have the fatal form of the illness, Crowder said. "It's a really small number, but people need to understand it can be a fatal disease."
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for West Nile disease.
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