Fauci: West Nile Nearly Wrecked My Life

Anthony Fauci contracted the West Nile virus in August, and he reveals in a New York Times essay that it took a far greater toll on his health than previously disclosed:

• "I could not swing my legs over the side of the bed to sit up without help from my wife and three daughters," he writes. "I could not stand up without assistance and certainly could not walk."
• One of the worst parts was the effect on his brain. "I was disoriented, unable to remember certain words, asking questions of my family that I should have known the answers to. I was afraid that I would never recover and return to normal."

Fauci, 83, considers himself lucky because his cognitive issues have disappeared, and his physical problems nearly so. He says he's writing the essay to raise public awareness of a disease that continues to spread in the US via mosquitoes, and to call for a greater effort from federal authorities and pharmaceutical companies—perhaps in partnership with each other—to develop vaccines and treatments. Such efforts need to be international in scope, he adds. Read the full essay. (Fauci, a former top official at the National Institutes of Health, released a memoir in June about his decades in public service.)