vaidynathan_edit.qxp 13/11/07 11:43 Page 41 West Nile Virus
Diagnostic Features of West Nile Virus Infection for Clinical
Physicians a report by Rajeev Vaidyanathan, PhD and Erol Fikrig,
MD 1. Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Rheumatology,
Yale University School of Medicine; 2.SRI CADRE Vector-borne and
Zoonotic Disease Research West Nile virus (WNV) is the most
common cause of arboviral encephalitis in supply of Mexico, with
0.03% of donors viremic. Kidney, stem cell, liver, North
America. From 1999 to 2007, over 25,000 human cases and 1,000
lung, pancreas, and bone marrow transplants have been implicated
in WNV human deaths were reported in the US. WNV is a mosquito-
borne, infection and death. Neurological sequelae and
encephalitis in neurotropic flavivirus antigenically similar to
Japanese encephalitis and immunocompromised recipients of organ
transplants are more severe than St Louis encephalitis viruses.
WNV has caused epidemics of febrile illness and in non-
immunocompromised individuals. WNV