Another man diagnosed with West Nile virus

A 38-year-old Clark County man has been diagnosed with a milder form of the mosquito-transmitted West Nile virus, bringing to six the number of cases this year including a 75-year-old woman who died of the disease, health officials said Tuesday.

The man is under the care of his physician and was not admitted to a local hospital like the five diagnosed in September, Southern Nevada Health District spokeswoman Stephanie Bethel said.

“We got confirmation this week,” she said about the most recent case.

Bethel said only one person from the previous cases remains hospitalized. The 75-year-old woman had been hospitalized when she died from West Nile virus last month.

The name of the woman who died — she is the fourth to die of West Nile in Clark County since 2003 – and details of her death were not released by the health district because of privacy laws. The Clark County coroner’s office did not handle the case.

The disease is transmitted by mosquitoes, which transmit the virus from infected birds to humans, birds and other animals they bite.

There is no vaccine available for people, but there is one available for horses. A horse that contracted the disease last month in Southern Nevada wasn’t vaccinated but is still alive, Bethel said.

Eighty percent of the people who contract the virus never have symptoms.

Severe symptoms can include high fever, headache, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, vision loss, numbness and paralysis. Up to 20 percent of those infected have symptoms such as fever, headache, and body aches, nausea, vomiting, and sometimes swollen lymph glands or a skin rash on the chest, stomach and back, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The neuroinvasive form of the virus affects nervous systems and can cause encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain, and meningitis, which causes inflammation to the membrane around the brain and spinal cord. Someone who survives this form of the disease can be left paralyzed.

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@review
journal.com or 702-383-0308.