2-Year-Old Transplant Recipient Survives West Nile Encephalitis

A two-year-old kidney transplant recipient has become the first known immunosuppressed pediatric patient to survive subsequent infection with West Nile encephalitis.

Nicholas Merrell of St. Edward, Nebraska, who received a kidney transplant in November 2002, this past October became ill with the West Nile virus, possibly from a mosquito bite.

The infant was the only documented immunosuppressed pediatric patient the doctors could find with West Nile encephalitis, and the only guidelines they had to go by were the handful of adults who have been diagnosed with the condition.

Hospitalized in Omaha, Nicolas was sedated and put on a ventilator to help his body fight off the illness. The following week, he was taken off it. The boy returned home last month, and is reported doing well.

Other Sources: NephCure