Preliminary Test Results Show LA County
Woman Had West Nile Virus

September 6, 2002
By ANDREW BRIDGES AP Science Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Los Angeles County woman has tested positive for West Nile virus in what is believed to be the first case of a person contracting the illness in the western United States, state health officials said Friday in announcing preliminary laboratory results.

The results of further tests will not be known for another week. However, county health officials were calling it a "probable case of locally acquired West Nile virus infection."

The woman had a mild case of meningitis, which is associated with the virus, in early August and later recovered.

The unidentified woman had not traveled outside the region, meaning the infection, if confirmed, occurred locally, county Department of Health Services spokeswoman Maria Iacobo said. Officials provided no further information about the woman, including her age or where in the county she lives.

In two other cases of confirmed or suspected West Nile virus along the Pacific Coast, the victims are thought to have been infected in states where the mosquito-borne virus is already known to be present.

In Oregon, doctors in Salem are treating a woman who also has symptoms consistent with West Nile. Test results on the woman, who is in critical condition and became sick in Michigan, also could come Friday.

Earlier, a Washington man was diagnosed with the virus, which health officials said he contracted in Louisiana.

Since West Nile was first detected in New York in 1999, the virus has been found in humans in 27 other states and the District of Columbia. While its push westward had been expected, there have been no confirmed cases of humans contracting the disease west of the Rocky Mountains.

Nationwide this year, there have been 854 confirmed human cases of the virus, including 43 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California health officials have been on the lookout for the virus since 2000.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/4290007p-5309760c.html