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West Nile patients take a year to recover

Prognosis improves over time, study finds

August 19, 2008

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Sarah Barmak

STAFF REPORTER

Canadians who contract West Nile virus have a very good chance of a full recovery over time – even those with severe neurological complications, say researchers.

Investigators followed 156 Canadians infected with West Nile from 2003-2007, and found the average recovery took roughly a year, including for patients who developed neuroinvasive diseases such as meningitis and encephalitis.

"We would have thought that the neuroinvasive patients would have fared worse over time, but their outcomes normalized over a year," says principal investigator Dr. Mark Loeb, an infectious disease specialist at McMaster University. Patients saw a return of physical and mental function and a gradual retreat of mood and fatigue issues.

"There was relatively little information about what the long-term prognosis was for people infected with West Nile," says Loeb. "We decided to do a longitudinal study so we can offer patients and their families a better idea of what to expect."

Outcomes were worse if serious disease existed before infection.

Researchers couldn't determine long-term outcomes for patients who developed acute flaccid paralysis because only seven developed the condition – too few to produce a conclusive mathematical model.

That was what happened to Ryszard Kolbuc, a Toronto plasterer who contracted the virus in 2002 and became a paraplegic three weeks after being bitten.

Last year, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled Kolbuc was entitled to $130,000 from Ace Ina Insurance, which had first refused payment.

In 2008, there has been only one case of West Nile virus in Ontario – a 28-year-old Markham woman who tested positive on Aug. 14. In 2007, Toronto had four cases.