Man in Florida Panhandle May Have West Nile Virus
JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: One of our participants in this morning's online editorial meeting was concerned about the spread of the West Nile Virus. Nelson Piquet asked: "Now that the West Nile virus has been found in the metro Atlanta area, how soon before we see a case in humans?" In metro Atlanta, actually, very close to my own home, a hawk was found to have the virus. And in the Florida panhandle, a man fell ill from what is believed at this point to be the virus. Right now, he's undergoing some tests about that. The virus has been found in several other animals in Florida and in a bird in South Georgia. Mosquitoes spread West Nile by feeding on the blood of infected birds. CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now with more on this story and the spread of it. Sanjay, explain it to us, what this virus does to the brain.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, one of the things that people are worried about the most is the actual virus getting into the brain and specifically affecting some areas around the brain stem. The virus will actually pass through what's known as the blood-brain barrier, getting into this area and starting to cause swelling in this area. That's known as encephalitis, and that can be a real problem. That can eventually lead to death. That's to be distinguished from what is known as meningitis, which is actually a swelling on the outer part of the brain, over here. So when people are worried about West Nile virus, Joie, that's what they're worried about.</s>CHEN: All right. Sanjay, we've got a question from the Web chat audience right now. Let's take a look. Kimberly Kinnear asking: "Is the virus contagious?" That is, is it contagious human to human?</s>GUPTA: Right. It's not. It's not contagious human to human. It's not contagious bird to human. It's contagious mosquito getting the virus from a bird and then a mosquito biting a human being. That is the only way that they have found that this virus is actually transmitted. So not to be fearful of other humans that have the virus, not to be fearful of birds that have the virus.</s>CHEN: Is that unusual? Does that happen often, that you need the mosquito for the transmission?</s>GUPTA: There's all sorts of different viruses that do use mosquitoes, in particular as a vector, whereas the hosts -- in this case, birds and human beings -- are totally immune to that.</s>CHEN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta from our medical unit. Wear the bug spray. Thanks very much.</s>GUPTA: Exactly.</s>CHEN: Don't be too afraid to go outside.