Dr Anthony Fauci has revealed he feared he would never recover after being hospitalized with the mosquito-borne West Nile virus.
The former White House doctor, 83, was experiencing weakness and fatigue that he attributed to a recent attack of Covid, but quickly became delirious and incoherent with a fever of 103 degrees.
He was admitted to the hospital where doctors were unable to determine what was causing Dr. Fauci’s symptoms, and while he doesn’t remember much, he does remember that he had “never felt so sick in my life.”
Only after returning home did blood tests reveal that Dr. Fauci had been infected with West Nile virus, a potentially deadly disease transmitted by mosquitoes.
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the virus, but 80 percent of cases are mild and Sufferers may experience flu-like symptoms or rashes, but in more severe cases, patients may experience neuroinvasive West Nile disease, which can be fatal.
Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, contracted West Nile virus but is expected to make a full recovery.
The above shows where West Nile virus has been detected in the United States.
Dr. Fauci detailed his “heartbreaking” experience contracting West Nile virus in August 2024 in a opinion article in The New York Times.
Dr. Fauci wrote: “There is no treatment for West Nile virus disease and I had to deal with the toll it took on my body.” It was terrifying. I couldn’t get my legs over the edge of the bed to sit up without the help of my wife and three daughters.
‘I couldn’t get up without help and I certainly couldn’t walk. A very scary part of the ordeal was the effect on my cognition. I was disoriented, unable to remember certain words, asking my family questions to which I should have known the answers.
“I was afraid I would never recover and get back to normal.”
The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases had contracted Covid a month earlier and attributed his West Nile virus symptoms to rebound Covid symptoms, but his extreme fatigue and exhaustion, along with a dangerously high fever, led him to the hospital. hospital.
Doctors thought Dr. Fauci had sepsis, an overreaction of the immune system to a life-threatening infection, and began treating him with antibiotics. Five days later his fever broke and he went home.
The next day, his blood results came back and were positive for West Nile virus.
Since 1999, about 60,000 cases of West Nile virus have been reported in the US.
As of 2024, West Nile has been detected in humans in 46 states.
As of October 1, 880 cases of West Nile virus have been reported in 46 states, and 65 of them progressed to the more severe neuroinvasive West Nile disease.
This life-threatening condition is rare (affecting less than one percent of West Nile patients) but can cause high fever, disorientation, headache, stiffness, tremors, seizures, paralysis, tremors, brain swelling and coma.
West Nile virus, which Dr. Fauci called an “emerging public health threat,” is the most common mosquito-borne disease in the U.S. and has caused nearly 3,000 deaths since it was first detected in the US in 1999.
Dr. Fauci wrote that his recovery was a slow process. When he returned home, he was bedridden, disoriented and unable to sit up.
Several weeks later, he was able to walk with a walker. A few weeks later he was able to walk on his own and now he can walk several kilometers a day without feeling tired.
He added that his cognitive difficulties have completely resolved and he is on the road to a full recovery.
Dr. Fauci wrote for the Times: “I tell my story because West Nile virus is a disease that, for many people, can have devastating and permanent consequences. At my age of 83, I was at risk of permanent neurological deterioration and even death. However, the public may not be aware of the danger of this disease and that it continues to spread throughout the United States.
The virus was first detected in the United States, in the New York City area, in 1999 and was probably introduced from the Middle East or Africa. Mosquitoes contract the virus from infected birds and transmit it to humans through a bite.
And experts say rising temperatures due to climate change will only increase the incidence of West Nile in the United States because mosquitoes are attracted to hot, humid climates and standing water.
The above shows where West Nile virus patients developed the most severe neuroinvasive West Nile virus disease between 1999 and 2023.
Despite this, Dr. Fauci said that West Nile virus is not getting the funding and research it needs to find a vaccine or treatment because governments, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies do not want to spend money developing a vaccine or a treatment because cases vary greatly. year after year.
He wrote: ‘Such fluctuations make it almost impossible to have a consistent enough number of cases to demonstrate that a vaccine was effective in preventing infection. The same frustration applies to the development of antiviral drugs.
“Because patient numbers are so inconsistent, pharmaceutical companies lack the financial incentive to make significant investments in the development of drugs and vaccines for West Nile.”
To solve this problem, Dr. Fauci said efforts to achieve a vaccine and antiviral drugs must be a global collaboration between public and private entities, as were the efforts for HIV, hepatitis and Covid.
He wrote: “With international research partnerships and political will driven by a committed activist community, as we have seen with HIV and now Covid, West Nile virus treatments and prevention tools should be within our reach.”