It's an alarmingly high number, just recently four cases of West Nile Virus have been confirmed in Dougherty County and one in Leesburg. And four of those cases were confirmed in one week.
"The cases are kind of all over the place, East Albany, South Albany, Central Albany, so there's not that connection, and what that kind of tells us is that West Nile is equal opportunity and it's everywhere so everybody has to take precautions," said Jacqueline Jenkins, the Southwest Health District Epidemiologist.
The severity of some cases is also causing concern.
"The third one [case] is unfortunately not improving much. He's the one probably with the most severe case that we've seen. And has the encephalitis, with severe muscle weakness, with severe dysfunction of the coordination of movements and his ability to remain awake which is part of the brain function," said Carlos Franco, an infectious disease doctor with Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital.
There's no specific treatment for the mosquito borne illness, and no vaccine.
Doctors stress that not everyone who becomes infected gets sick. Franco says 80% show no symptoms.
"And of those 20%, only a very small percentage, less than 1% will develop that very severe form of that disease in the form of West Nile Virus encephalitis or West Nile Virus meningitis," explained Franco.
The elderly, very young and people who have underlying medical conditions are most at risk.
"The ones with the severe forms, all of them have the risk factors, age above 50, all of them are actually age above 60 and they all had some underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc," said Franco.
And health officials say the most preventative measure is to eliminate standing water where mosquitoes breed.
"It's extremely important, especially after some rain, because you'll get that collection of rain in containers around your home, it could be bird baths, it could be your flower pot. Anything that can have a teaspoon of water, you can breed mosquitoes," said Jenkins.
And doctors say the best protection is to avoid being bitten altogether. And if you can't avoid the outdoors, health officials recommend wearing long sleeves and pants. And use a repellent with deet.
August is peak season for West Nile Virus and we've got three more weeks.
For more information, click on the link below.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/index.htm
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