LYCOS RETRIEVER 
West Nile Virus: Humans
built 434 days ago
The only human epidemic of West Nile Virus infection that has been well-studied occurred in Romania in the late summer of 1996. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, certainly the premier infectious disease control agency in the world, assisted in the evaluation and control of that epidemic and recently published a report in The Lancet, the leading British medical journal.
Source:
According to the CDC, West Nile virus is not spread between humans. However, in recent developments, several cases were documented of organ transplant recipients who contracted the disease from their donor. Health officials suspect the organ donor acquired the virus through a blood transfusion. As a result, the government is working to develop a blood-screening test for West Nile virus. However, the acting commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Lester Crawford, stresses that the risk of contracting West Nile from blood is significantly lower than the risk of forgoing any procedure that would call for a blood transfusion.
Source:
The principle route of human infection with West Nile virus is through the bite of an infected mosquito. Additional routes of infection have become apparent during the 2002 West Nile epidemic. It is important to note that these other methods of transmission represent a very small proportion of cases. Other methods of transmission include blood transfusion, organ transplantation, mother-to-child (ingestion of breast milk and transplacental) and occupational.
Source:
Human illness from West Nile virus is rare, even in areas where the virus has been reported. The chance that any one person is going to become ill from a mosquito bite is low. You can further reduce your chances of becoming ill by protecting yourself from mosquito bites. For tips on how to avoid mosquito bites check out the links below.
Source:
WNV was first isolated from a feverish adult woman in the West Nile District of Uganda in 1937 during research on yellow fever. A series of serosurveys in 1939 in central Africa found anti-WNV positive results ranging from 1.4% (Congo) to 46.4% (White Nile region, Sudan). It was subsequently identified in Egypt (1942) and India (1953), a 1950 serosurvey in Egypt found 90% of those over 40 years in age had WNV antibodies. The ecology was characterized in 1953 with studies in Egypt[26] and Israel.[27] The virus became recognized as a cause of severe human meningoencephalitis in elderly patients during an outbreak in Israel in 1957. The disease was first noted in horses in Egypt and France in the early 1960s and found to be widespread in southern Europe, southwest Asia and Australia.
Source:
Wild birds are the principal hosts of West Nile virus. The virus has been isolated from a number of wetland and terrestrial avian species in diverse areas. High, long-term viremia, sufficient to infect vector mosquitoes, has been observed in infected birds, and the virus persists in the organs of inoculated ducks and pigeons for 20 to 100 days. Migratory birds are therefore hypothesized to be instrumental in the introduction of the virus to temperate areas of Eurasia during spring migrations. Rarely, West Nile virus has been isolated from mammals (several species of mice and hamsters, European Hare, an African fruit bat, camels, cattle, horses, dogs, a bushbaby, humans). Mammals are less important than birds in maintaining transmission cycles of the virus in ecosystems.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Humans