What is West Nile Fever?

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About West Nile virus:

West Nile Virus (WNV) is a member of the flavivirus genus and belongs to the family Flaviviridae.
It was first isolated in a woman in the West Nile district of Uganda in 1937.
It is commonly found in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North America and West Asia.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it typically spikes between the summer and autumn months of June and September.
Transmission: Human infection is most often the result of bites from infected mosquitoes. Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on infected birds, which circulate the virus in their blood for a few days.
The virus may also be transmitted through contact with other infected animals, their blood, or other tissues.
Symptoms:
- Infection with 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 and symptoms include fever, headache, and tiredness, and body aches, nausea, vomiting, occasionally with a skin rash.
So far, 19 countries, including Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Türkiye and Kosovo have reported outbreaks.
Treatment: No vaccine is available for WNV and only supportive treatments can be provided to neuroinvasive WNV patients.

Q1: What are Viruses?

These are parasitic entities lacking cells, making them unclassifiable within any specific kingdom. They are sub-microscopic infectious agents that can only replicate inside host cells of living organisms. They range from 20 to 400 nm and can infect all life forms – humans, animals, plants, bacteria.

Source: Deadly West Nile virus spreads across Ukraine, 11 fatalities since July