West Nile Virus

In News 

The Kerala health department is on alert after the death of a 47-year-old from Thrissur due to the West Nile Virus.

What is West Nile Virus?

• It is a mosquito-borne, single-stranded RNA virus. 
• It is a member of the flavivirus genus and belongs to the Japanese encephalitis antigenic complex of the family Flaviviridae.
• It is commonly found in Africa, Europe, the Middle East, North America and West Asia. 
• Transmission : Culex species of mosquitoes act as the principal vectors for transmission. 
  • It is transmitted by infected mosquitoes between and among humans and animals, including birds, which are the reservoir host of the virus.
  • It can also spread through blood transfusion, from an infected mother to her child, or through exposure to the virus in laboratories.
  •  It is not known to spread by contact with infected humans or animals.
  • To date, no human-to-human transmission of WNV through casual contact has been documented.
• Impact :It can cause neurological disease and death in people. 
• Detection of WNV
  • The virus was first isolated in a woman in the West Nile district of Uganda in 1937. 
  • It was identified in birds (crows and columbiformes like doves and pigeons) in the Nile delta region in 1953. 
  • Before 1997, WNV was not considered pathogenic for birds, but then, a more virulent strain caused the death in Israel of different bird species, presenting signs of encephalitis and paralysis.

• Preventive measures
  • This vector-borne disease can be prevented by protecting one-self from mosquito bites. 
  • Other steps are wearing clothing that acts as a barrier to exposure to bites, reducing breeding sites, covering water storage containers, eliminating puddles and drainage of places where water accumulates, eliminating unusable containers where water pools, and controlling garbage in yards and gardens.

Source:IE