KNOXVILLE (WATE) - A human case of West Nile Virus is confirmed in Knox County, officials said Friday.
This is the first confirmed human case of the virus in Knox County in at least six years, according to health department spokeswoman Ranee Randby. Officials would not say where the infected person lives.
The health department has been spraying multiple areas of the county to help fight the disease, which is spread by infected mosquitoes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about one in 150 people who are infected will develop severe illness.
The severe symptoms can include: high fever, headache, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, vision loss, numbness and paralysis. These symptoms may last several weeks, and neurological effects may be permanent.
The virus causes milder symptoms in up to 20 percent of those infected. Those symptoms include: fever, headache, and body aches, nausea, vomiting, and sometimes swollen lymph glands or a skin rash on the chest, stomach and back. The symptoms can last as short as a few days, though even healthy people have become sick for several weeks.
About four out of five people who are infected with West Nile Virus will not show any symptoms at all.
In East Tennessee, human cases of West Nile have also been reported in Greene County and Hawkins County.
As of September 4, 48 states in the U.S. have reported West Nile Virus infections in people, birds or mosquitoes.
A total of 1,993 cases of West Nile virus disease in people, including 87 deaths, have been reported to the CDC.
