A woman in her 40s is King County’s first case of locally acquired West Nile virus.
KIRO 7 has learned the woman developed viral meningitis from the virus, an inflammation of the brain’s lining, was hospitalized in mid-September for a day, and has since recovered. It is believed she was bitten by an infected mosquito sometime in August.
Before this case, all King County residents who reported West Nile virus had either traveled out of state or to eastern Washington, where infections tend to happen every year.
“We’ve had it in birds,” Dr. Jeffrey Duchin with Seattle-King County Public Health said. “it“It’s been found in a horse as early as 2006. It’s a risk. Everyone should assume our mosquitoes carry West Nile virus.”
It is a virus with no treatment.
“There is no treatment for any stage of West Nile virus, so the best thing to do is prevent yourself from getting infected in the first place,” Duchin said. “It’s a very rare disease, so that’s good. Most people completely.”
Duchin added that most people who are infected don’t experience symptoms at all. About one in five experience what he calls West Nile fever—a flu-like illness with symptoms including headache, muscle ache, and fatigue. Less than 1% experience the virus causing meningitis or other inflammations.
Other counties have tracked the virus in animals. In August, the Washington Department of Health found the virus in Tacoma mosquitoes for the first time.
Mark Geiss, a family member of a KIRO 7 employee, developed encephalitis, which is swelling of the brain, from West Nile years ago.
“When I got into the hospital, I really thought I was dying,” he said. “I started to get a headache, and a couple hours later it was a massive, horrible, incapacitating migraine. It got extremely, extremely nauseous.”
It took Geiss two weeks in the hospital to recover, and another two weeks of rest and recuperation at home.
These days, he tries to protect himself.
“Obviously mosquito spray, keeping covered, whatever,” he said. “Mosquitoes are so thick in so many parts of our country.”
Duchin recommends that, too, as well as eliminating places around work or home that allow standing water, like gutters or garbage cans, where mosquitoes can breed.
But with the temperatures dropping, KIRO 7 reporter Linzi Sheldon asked, “Right now, are we out of the more dangerous time, you might say, because it's getting colder, it's almost November?”
“Yeah, late October is not West Nile virus risk period,” Duchin said. “It's usually the latter part of the summer where mosquitoes tend to be most prevalent. But each year is different. So if mosquitoes are around, take precautions… even now is a good time to clean up any places where water might be standing and accumulating.”
Geiss recognizes his case was severe. And he hopes it’s something other people never have to experience.
“I think about it from time to time, my gosh, could this happen to me again or --- it's a scary thing for people everywhere,” he said.
It's unclear why the virus has moved west in Washington, but Duchin said wetter springs followed by long, hot, dry summers are ideal conditions for mosquitoes, and experts believe weather patterns changing may increase Western Washington’s risk for West Nile.
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