Two new cases of West Nile feared
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Posted 6:32PM on Tuesday 10th September 2002 ( 22 years ago )
ATLANTA - Two new cases of suspected West Nile virus have been reported in humans in Georgia -- one of them in the same county where a victim is believed to have received the virus from an organ donor. <br>
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DeKalb County health board spokesman Richard Quartaron said the 70-year-old DeKalb resident would be the first person in the area to get West Nile from a mosquito, as it's typically spread. <br>
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Quartaron said the resident is in good condition at a local hospital. Officials wouldn't release the identity or gender of the patient, who lives and works within Atlanta city limits. <br>
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Also, a 55-year-old woman from Pike County, about 45 miles south of Atlanta, tested positive for the mosquito-borne illness. She had fever symptoms associated with the virus but not the potentially deadly swelling of the brain, according to the state Department of Public Health. <br>
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,086 cases of West Nile in 44 states and the District of Columbia as of Tuesday. Forty-five people have died from the virus. <br>
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Federal health officials confirmed September fourth that at least three of the four people who received transplants from a Georgia car crash victim became infected with West Nile virus, likely through organs donated by a woman who died in a car crash. <br>
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Officials still haven't determined how the organ donor became infected. <br>
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The CDC confirmed two other previously reported cases of West Nile Tuesday. A 12-year-old boy from the Columbus area in west Georgia tested positive, but he has since completely recovered. A 77-year-old man from the same area who died also had the virus, but it's not known whether his death was caused by the disease. <br>
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Results are pending on two other possible West Nile cases reported in the Columbus area.
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