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It's a mosquito-borne disease that has already killed three people in Iowa this year.
The Iowa Department of Public Health reports that the number of West Nile virus cases in Iowa is the highest in more than 15 years.
Doctors say they have diagnosed 73 Iowans with the disease so far this summer.
Three of these Iowans are dead and health officials estimate that the number of cases should continue to increase until the first frost, which kills mosquitoes.
Experts believe that our hot and humid summer can be at the origin of the peak.
An Iowa man who was infected last year says it's a long road to recovery, but he defies the odds.
"I thought I had a bad flu, I was losing control of my legs," said Jeff Menary, managing director of Grinnell Mutual.
It has been almost a year since Menary went to the hospital.
"Finished the intensive care for three weeks and had total paralysis of the neck down," Menary said.
It was a Saturday and Monday, it was broken down.
It turns out that Menary was infected with West Nile virus.
"I do not even remember being bitten," he said.
"I had so many symptoms, I had basically meningitis, which damaged my spine, syphilitic with swelling of the brain and a lot of other things … The chemistry of your whole body no longer works." , did he declare.
Today, he is back to work as CEO of Grinnell Mutual, a position he was to occupy in December.
"The culture we have here with our employees, we care about each other and it's been made," Menary said.
Operations Director Dave Wingert was acting CEO while Menary was recovering.
"The organization, we were very well prepared and everyone was walking in the order we were going, but that was really the way Jeff was going to go through this whole medical situation," said Wingert.
Menary says he's still pretty weak, only to regain 35% of his strength up to now. But he says that when it comes to getting the West Nile, he is one of the lucky ones.
"I'm very lucky that many of them have cognitive problems and severe depression problems and half of these problems persist forever. And I do not have that," he said. said Menary.
Less than 1% of people infected with West Nile virus become seriously ill. Menary fell into this category. However, he returned to work in March.
He says it's always a challenge to fit a wheelchair in the workplace, he is also developing carpal tunnel but he does not plan to retire anytime soon.
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