dr. Anthony Fauci is recovering from West Nile virus infection.
On Saturday, August 24, a spokesman for the 83-year-old former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said The Washington Post that he was hospitalized but is now recovering at home.
“A full recovery is expected,” the spokesman said in a statement.
The Fast reported that an insider close to Fauci said he wasn’t sure how he contracted the virus and that he had been in the hospital for six days.
dr. Jonathan LaPook, CBS News’ chief medical correspondent, announced on X that he had spoken with Fauci, who told him he had been hospitalized about 10 days ago and developed “fever, chills and severe fatigue.”
“Evaluation revealed that he was infected with West Nile virus, possibly from a mosquito bite he received in his backyard,” LaPook wrote. “He left the hospital three days ago and is recovering at home.”
LaPook also said, “The prognosis is for a full recovery.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci in 2022.
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West Nile virus is often spread through the bite of an infected mosquito (or sometimes a bird), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It can be found in the USA as well as in other parts of the world. Symptoms of the virus may include fever, headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea, or rash.
Although there is no vaccine for West Nile virus, the CDC says people can avoid contracting the disease by using bug spray, wearing long sleeves or pants if they know they will be around mosquitoes, and taking steps to prevent mosquitoes from entering indoors.
Fauci served at the NIH for more than four decades, advising to help create public policy to combat HIV/AIDS, SARS, MERS, bird flu, swine flu, Zika, and Ebola. During his career, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, the Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service, and 62 honorary doctorates.
He gained notoriety in 2020 for his work advising the public and then-President Donald Trump during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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He retired in 2023, and PEOPLE reported that he now serves as a distinguished university professor at Georgetown University with joint appointments at the School of Medicine and the McCourt School of Public Policy.
Speaking to PEOPLE in July about her new memoir, Duty: Journey of a doctor in the public serviceopened up about what he’s learned over his decades-long career, as well as the changing attitudes of the American public about science and public health.
“I’m not naive,” he told PEOPLE at the time. “I am aware of the destructive nature of the anti-science attitude that has been rapidly developing in society in recent years.” He added that the problem “didn’t start with the Trump administration,” even if it “got a big jump with the Trump administration.”
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“I still feel a little cautiously optimistic that there are better angels in everyone who will come out,” he explained.
“And if people really start to realize that we’re a lot more the same than we are different, we’re going to get away from … that creepiness and that hatred because it’s unsustainable,” Fauci added. “Even if you’re in that camp of resentment, you have to understand deep down that it’s not the solution. It just isn’t.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education