Nebraska Blood Screening Turns up 9 Cases of West Nile

July 20, 2003
By The Associated Press

LINCOLN, Neb. - Nine new cases of the West Nile virus have been found in Nebraska, all discovered by new screening tests of blood donated to the American Red Cross.

The people who tested positive were not aware they were infected with the mosquito-borne virus, said Dr. Richard Raymond, the state's chief medical officer.

None were experiencing symptoms of the virus when they recently donated blood to the Red Cross, said Raymond, who announced the new cases Friday.

Four of the cases were in Chase County, while one case each was found in Dawson, Hall, Harlan, Lincoln and Saunders counties.

The nine cases were out of 6,735 blood-donor samples screened for the virus since testing started three weeks ago.

"It tells us we have more activity at this time then we would have known without the Red Cross testing the blood," Raymond said.

Up until Friday, there was only one known human case of West Nile in the state so far this year. A 36-year-old Nebraska City woman was infected last month and has since recovered.

Because the blood screening is new, it's hard to measure how this year's West Nile season is shaping up compared with last summer when the virus was first detected in the state.

"We can't make a leap of faith and say, 'because we have these nine cases it's going to be a worse season,"' Raymond said. "We don't know that, because we didn't test last year."

Last year, there were 174 known cases in people in 48 of Nebraska's 93 counties. Most of those cases were in July, August and September last year. Eight people died from the virus in Nebraska in 2003.

West Nile is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito that has picked up the virus by feeding on an infected bird. Mosquitoes pass the virus to humans.

Most people carrying the virus have no symptoms and only a small percentage have mild flulike symptoms, Raymond said.

The most common symptoms of West Nile virus include fever and headaches. However, it can lead to other complications such as encephalitis, meningitis, convulsions, paralysis or death.

Raymond said people should continue donating blood.

"The screening can reassure recipients that the blood they receive through the Red Cross does not contain West Nile virus," Raymond said.

The Red Cross will notify those blood donors who tested positive and provide follow-up testing at no charge, he said.

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