A 71-year-old Atlanta woman has become the first US fatality from West Nile virus this year. Two experts from New York, where the Old World pathogen was first detected in 1999, were expected to arrive in Atlanta today to advise health authorities on how to proceed in fighting it.

Georgia has been on alert for West Nile virus since a hawk infected with it was found in June in DeKalb County. Since then, 38 additional birds and one horse have been found to be infected in 17 Georgia counties. Birds are carriers of the disease, which is then picked up by mosquitoes. Many people bitten by virus-carrying mosquitoes never realize it, because their immune systems fight off the infection and provide them with immunity from future bites. But some persons are at increased risk: chiefly the elderly, the chronically ill, and those whose immune systems are impaired by AIDS or chemotherapy. About 30 of every 140 infected people experience mild achiness and headache. About one case out of 140 proceeds to encephalitis, a serious swelling of the brain that can lead to coma and death. Health officials said they have been preparing for the virus' arrival in Georgia for 18 months. The Metro Atlanta West Nile Task Force is a coalition of Georgia counties that plans strategies with the help of a consultant on loan from the CDC.

The dead woman, Blanch H. Hill, lived in a rented house on Tyler Street in downtown Atlanta, a few blocks west of the Georgia Dome. The area around her home includes numerous dilapidated apartments, neglected houses and littered sidewalks. Hill died Aug. 11 at Grady Memorial Hospital, less than two weeks after she was admitted with symptoms that prompted health officials to test her for the virus. Mayor Bill Campbell and health officials confirmed West Nile virus as the cause of Hill's death at a news conference on Friday. On Saturday, workers dropped larvacide briquettes into standing water and ponds throughout metro Atlanta.

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