New Delhi: West Nile virus is much like Malaria which is spread by mosquitoes and is often seen in later summer. It mostly causes milk, flu-like symptoms but can turn life-threatening in a few cases.
Reportedly, the WNV can infect not just humans, but also birds, mosquitoes, horses, and other mammals. The virus very rarely can spread through transfused blood, a transplanted organ, or the placenta to a fetus.
According to WHO, WNV is either asymptomatic (no symptoms) in around 80% of infected people or can lead to West Nile fever or severe West Nile disease. About 20% of people who become infected with WNV will develop West Nile fever. Symptoms include fever, headache, tiredness, body aches, nausea, vomiting, occasionally a skin rash (on the trunk of the body) and swollen lymph glands.
The symptoms of severe disease (also called neuroinvasive diseases, such as West Nile encephalitis or meningitis or West Nile poliomyelitis) include headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, and paralysis.
It is estimated that approximately 1 in 150 persons infected with the West Nile virus will develop a more severe form of the disease. Serious illness can occur in people of any age, however people over the age of 50 and some immunocompromised persons (for example, transplant patients) are at the highest risk for getting severely ill when infected with WNV. The incubation period is usually 3 to 14 days.
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