After I spent more than 50 years chasing and fighting viruses, one fought back and nearly took me down. I speak of the West Nile virus, delivered by the deadliest animal on the planet: the mosquito.
I got infected not during any of my international trips over the years but most likely while I was outside my home in Washington, D.C. In mid-August I was feeling weak and exhausted but attributed it to a recent bout with Covid-19. Though I tested positive for Covid over a month prior, I experienced a rebound of symptoms after taking the treatment Paxlovid. Perhaps I was still experiencing lingering symptoms that would eventually resolve.
Not so. Instead, I began to experience unexplained severe fatigue and exhaustion, culminating in my admission to a hospital on Aug. 16, delirious and incoherent, with a temperature of 103 degrees. I remember little of the five and a half days that I spent in the hospital, except that I had never felt so ill in my life. My physicians assumed that I had sepsis and treated me with antibiotics. After several days, my fever subsided, and I was discharged on antibiotics without a clear diagnosis. That changed the next day when blood tests revealed that I had West Nile virus.
There is no treatment for West Nile virus disease, and I was left to deal with its toll on my body. It was terrifying. I could not swing my legs over the side of the bed to sit up without help from my wife and three daughters. I could not stand up without assistance and certainly could not walk. A very scary part of the ordeal was the effect on my cognition. I was disoriented, unable to remember certain words, asking questions of my family that I should have known the answers to. I was afraid that I would never recover and return to normal.
Fortunately, over a few weeks, slow improvement began. I was able to walk with a walker and then without any assistance. Now I can walk a few miles per day with only minimal fatigue, and my cognitive issues have completely resolved. I am on my way to a total recovery, but it has been a harrowing experience.
I tell my story because West Nile virus is a disease that, for many people, can have devastating and permanent consequences. At my age, 83, I was at risk of permanent neurological impairment and even death. Yet the public may be unaware of the danger of this disease and its continued spread across the United States; it has been identified in 46 states this year. Unfortunately, very little is being done about it from scientific and public awareness perspectives.
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