Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been diagnosed with West Nile virus. Here’s what to know about the disease.
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.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).
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 then bite people and other animals, per the CDC’s website.
The virus is not transmitted through eating or handling infected animals or birds — nor is it spread through physical contact, coughing or sneezing.
A vast majority — around 80% — of the people who contract the virus will not experience any symptoms, the CDC states on its website.
