Animal viral diseases and global change: bluetongue and West Nile fever as paradigms

Jiménez-Clavero, Miguel Á

The first case of WNF was described in Uganda (West Nile district, hence the name of the virus) in a feverish woman, from whose blood the virus was first isolated in 1937 (Smithburn et al., 1940) . It was considered a mild disease, endemic in parts of Africa (an "African fever"). However, since around 1950s, the occurrence of disease outbreaks with neurological disease, lethal in some cases, caused by WNV, especially in the Middle East and North Africa, made necessary to rethink this concept. In humans, the majority of WNV infections are asymptomatic, about 20% may develop mild symptoms such as headache, fever, and muscle pain, and less than 1% develop more severe disease, characterized by neurological symptoms, including encephalitis, meningitis, flaccid paralysis, and occasionally severe muscle weakness (Hayes et al., 2005b) . Advanced age is considered a risk factor for developing severe WNV infection or death. The mortality rate calculated for the recent epidemic of the disease in the U.S. is 1 in every 24 human cases diagnosed (Kramer et al., 2008) .