Councillor recovers from West Nile virus

Two months after being diagnosed with West Nile virus, Coun. John Filion says he’s recovered.

The 70-year-old councillor for Willowdale announced his diagnosis in his newsletter and Twitter in late August, saying that on Aug. 17 he had been admitted to hospital after having awoken with extreme double vision, high blood pressure and a high fever.

It took doctors there almost a week to diagnose the illness as a West Nile virus infection.

In an interview Tuesday, Filion said doctors told him he had suffered some of the more severe consequences of the virus — encephalitis and viral meningitis — and he had feared that the ongoing symptoms of extreme fatigue and brain fog might potentially have lasted for years.

“I was initially very concerned because a lot like COVID-19, it’s very unpredictable how it affects people, because you know it can range from people dying from it — a fairly low percentage — and a certain percentage are never the same again,” said Filion, a former chair of the Toronto Board of Health.

Toronto Public Health had told him he was the fourth case of West Nile virus to be logged in the city this year, Filion said.

“Public health told me that one was on life support, one couldn’t recognize their spouse, one was sick for two days and fully recovered — and (I was) the fourth,” Filion said.

The virus, transmitted via mosquito bite, has been reported in Toronto for more than 20 years.

According to Toronto Public Health, typical symptoms include swollen lymph glands, nausea and vomiting, and headaches and fever.

Filion said that his recovery was gradual.

“When I first got home from the hospital it was difficult to do anything,” he said.

“It was difficult going up and down stairs — it was difficult going outside for a walk. It was hard to concentrate. I would describe it as the same way that people describe COVID-19 brain – you just have this layer of fuzz around your brain and it becomes difficult to think very sharply.”

Now, Filion said he’s “99 per cent” recovered.

“By early October I was pretty much back to normal,” he said.