- WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number
of confirmed West Nile virus cases in the United States has topped 850,
with 257 new infections this past week alone, the U.S. Centres for Disease
Control and Prevention says.
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- That number is likely to grow before cases drop off as
the weather gets colder and mosquitoes that catch West Nile from infected
birds disappear, officials said.
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- Forty-three people in the U.S. have died of West Nile
this year, said Dr. Anthony Marfin of the CDC.
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- As of yesterday, the U.S. federal scientists had confirmed
a total of 854 human cases this year.
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- Marfin said yesterday health officials are investigating
whether a Mississippi woman contracted West Nile through a blood transfusion,
the second suspected case of West Nile transmission through blood.
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- The woman received 18 units of blood during an obstetrical
procedure in July, he said. Four weeks later, she was diagnosed with West
Nile encephalitis. She has since recovered.
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- Marfin cautioned she might have been infected by a mosquito,
as other West Nile victims have, noting she lives in a state with many
cases of the disease.
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- Five people in Ontario are currently suspected of having
West Nile, including two announced Wednesday in men older than 65 in Greater
Toronto.
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- Their blood shows antibodies for West Nile and they have
symptoms of the disease, but final confirmation awaits tests under way
in Winnipeg. One Peel Region resident did become infected with the virus
in 1999 during a stay in New York city and died upon returning to Canada.
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- The two possible human cases announced Wednesday in Toronto
were a city man of 75, being treated in hospital, and a Mississauga man
in hospital, who is recovering.
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- The virus has been detected in dead birds in Canada as
far west as Saskatchewan. It has also been found in at least 28 of the
United States and the District of Columbia.
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- It can infect horses and has killed several in the United
States. The Manitoba government reports a West Nile vaccine for horses
is now available in Canada.
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- Officials are virtually certain that one man infected
in the United States contracted West Nile after receiving an organ transplant
in Atlanta. Three others who got organs from the same Georgia woman also
have West Nile.
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- Authorities have two similar investigations under way
to determine if blood transfusions were the source of infection for the
Georgia organ donor and for the Mississippi woman. The organ donor got
blood from 63 people, as doctors tried to save her after a severe car accident.
The Mississippian needed blood from 18 people.
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