Dr. Marc Siegel breaks down what you need to know about the symptoms, risks and treatment. Dr.
Anthony Fauci , former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and former chief medical advisor to the president, was diagnosed with West Nile virus earlier this month, according to a spokesperson for Fauci. Fauci, 83 — who was the face of the U.S.
response to the COVID pandemic in 2020 — is now recovering at home after being hospitalized for six days. He is expected to make a full recovery, the spokesperson told Fox News. WEST NILE DEATH REPORTED IN TEXAS AS HEALTH OFFICIALS WARN RESIDENTS TO SAFEGUARD AGAINST MOSQUITOES What to know about West Nile virus As of Aug.
20, there were 216 West Nile virus cases in the U.S. across 33 states, per the CDC.
Among those, 142 cases were neuroinvasive (severe). Since the West Nile virus first entered the U.S.
in 1999, it has become the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Anthony Fauci, formerly the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to the president, was diagnosed with West Nile virus earlier this month, according to a spokesperson for Fauci.
(Getty Images) In most cases, the West Nile virus — a flavivirus in the same family as yellow fever, dengue fever, Japanese encephalitis and the Zika virus — is spread when Culex mosquitoes bite infected birds and .