CDC Slow in Diagnosing 4 West Nile Virus Cases
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Four Georgia men fell ill with West Nile virus as long ago as September, but the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta was so backed up with anthrax testing it could not confirm the diagnosis until a few days ago, health officials said.
The four were hospitalized and treated, and are expected to recover. There is no cure for the disease, so it would not have helped the men if the CDC had been able to diagnose West Nile with certainty earlier, state officials said.
The men, who are in their 60s and 70s, all had symptoms of encephalitis, one of the hallmarks of West Nile.
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