Louisville woman tests positive for West Nile Virus

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - A woman, who lives in Louisville’s Beechmont neighborhood, says she just found out she’s been infected with the West Nile Virus.

Mosquitos have recently tested positive in both Kentucky and Indiana.​

Ann Robinson Burks said she doesn't even remember getting bit by a mosquito in the first place.

"It has been awful," Burks said.

​Burks said, for three weeks, she didn’t know what was happening to her body. She’s had fevers, headaches and a full-body rash that popped up out of nowhere. ​

"Yeah, this is the worst side of it," Burks said, describing her skin.​ "The purple has changed on that side and on that side."​

For her, it's meant a lot of tests without results until Wednesday, when doctors told her she tested positive for the mosquito spread virus.

"The West Nile test came back positive," she said.

​She said that was a relief because not knowing what was wrong was the scariest part of the past three weeks.

Burks said she has to worry about the possibility off lifelong issues, and serious problems like meningitis – a concern she said now comes to mind when she has headaches or a stiff neck.

​"I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy," Burks said.

A recent Metro Health and Wellness press release said there were four human cases of West Nile Virus reported in Louisville last year.

None of those were fatal. There was a death reported in 2016.

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