West Nile Virus Victim Proves Disease Merits Respect, Not Fear

Gabriel Olvera is the first person in California to be locally infected with West Nile virus this year. The Moreno Valley resident picked up the bug while working near the Santa Ana River, and was hospitalized for five days and is still off the job.

On Friday, the day after state and local health officials announced that Olvera had contracted the virus that was first seen on the East Coast and swept across the nation, the 32-year-old construction worker spent the day with his family at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park -- proof, health officials say, that the disease’s emergence is noteworthy, but not cause for widespread alarm.

“We’re telling two stories: In ordinary cases, it’s not a big risk of major complications -- but they do occur nonetheless,” said Dr. Gary Feldman, Riverside County’s public health officer. “We shouldn’t panic, but it can in rare cases be quite a severe illness.”

As of Thursday, 6,613 U.S. cases of West Nile infection had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with 139 deaths. Last year, 4,156 cases were reported and 284 people died of the disease. Other cases of West Nile virus in California this year have been found to have originated outside the state.

Olvera said he didn’t know much about the virus when he was struck. He doesn’t recall being bitten by a mosquito while building a storm water channel in Riverside near a Santa Ana River wash, a breeding ground for the insects that transmit the infection.

“I never seen any. But obviously, I got poked by one,” he said.

Olvera got sick in late September, with fever, headaches, eye pain and vomiting. He had never experienced such a severe illness, so he went to the Riverside Community Hospital on Sept. 30. Doctors hospitalized him for five days. When Olvera learned that a blood test revealed that he had the West Nile virus, he said his first thought was that he would die.

“I was kind of scared,” he said.

The virus can cause a range of reactions, from minimal flu-like symptoms to death. Experts estimate that hundreds of people in California may already have been mildly infected and not know it.

Olvera has been recovering at home and has not worked in two weeks. A doctor ordered him Friday morning to rest for another week to fully recover, but Olvera said he wants to return to work. The disease can spread through blood transfusions or organ transplants, but is not otherwise contagious.

“I’m doing better. I get tired and I get headaches,” Olvera said.

Olvera’s infection prompted Riverside County health officials to intensify their mosquito containment efforts, including stepped-up spraying.

They repeated warnings to the public: avoid mosquito-ridden areas around dawn and dusk, clear standing water from around the home, and report dead birds that show no obvious cause of death to state officials at (877) WNV-BIRD.