The US’s former longtime top public health official Anthony Fauci says his recent bout with West Nile virus “nearly took [him] down”. In an opinion piece published Monday by the New York Times, Fauci explained how he likely contracted the virus – which spreads through mosquito bites – outside his home in Washington before he was hospitalized in August.

I speak of the West Nile virus, delivered by the deadliest animal on the planet: the mosquito. I got infected not during any of my international trips over the years but most likely while I was outside my home in Washington,