1st West Nile virus case confirmed

By Yi Whan-woo

Health authorities said Wednesday they have confirmed the country’s first-ever patient infected with the West Nile virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the patient, whose private information was not revealed, developed symptoms of the disease after travelling to Guinea between January and June.

The patient, currently in quarantine complained of headache, pain in the neck and eventually paralysis, symptoms strongly linked to the West Nile Virus, triggering immediate response from health experts, according to the CDC.

West Nile virus is a mosquito-borne disease usually prevalent along the West Nile region. No vaccine has been developed against the disease that has so far claimed the lives of more than 120 people in the United States and Canada this year alone. The CDC said the fatality rate is as high as 15 percent among seniors though less than 1 percent of people infected with it develop fatal conditions.

The CDC has conducted an epidemiologic investigation with the National Institute of Health since Sept. 26 when the case was reported in Gyeonggi Province. No other cases have since been reported but the CDC warned of possible spread of the virus, especially in outlying provincial areas through mosquito bites.

“The patient did not seek medical treatment immediately after returning home in June,” said Kwon Joon-wook, head of CDC's Center for Infectious Disease Control. “And it’s possible the patient has been bitten by mosquitoes since then, raising possibility that those parasites might carry the virus and spread the disease.”

The CDC also urged extra vigilance by people who may have recently traveled and returned from endemic areas, including the United States, with possible symptoms of the disease. “We’ll closely monitor the case as the number of mosquitoes has increased under the cool weather,” Kwon said.