West Nile Virus and Likelihood of Contraction essays

West Nile Virus and Likelihood of Contraction essays The West Nile Virus is the big worry this year considering sickness. This virus has swept across the country in the last four years, and has caused much worry among the public. Once the virus is caught there is a chance of death, but what most people dont know is that the chance of fatality is less than 1 percent. There are a few things that people should know about this virus to lessen the worry. They need to know what the virus is, how the virus is transmitted, and the chance of catching or even having symptoms. The West Nile virus was first detected in the United States in New York City in 1999. That first year it caused 62 cases of neurological disease in humans, 7 deaths, and left thousands of birds and horses dead. It was first it was isolated in Africa, and has since then been discovered in Europe and the Middle East along the main bird migration routes that join Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. The strain of the virus that was recently discovered in the United States seems to be closely related to one that was moving around in Israel recently (Craven, 1). This virus is an arbovirus, which means it is carried by arthropods, and is active only during the warmer months of the year which is the time that most mosquitoes will become infected by feeding on infected birds (Craven, 1). There are two dozen species of mosquitoes that can carry the West Nile Virus, but that is out of thousands of species of mosquitoes. Most of the species that do carry the virus do not readily feed on humans (Craven, 1). That shows that the risk of catching the virus from a mosquito is extremely small. Besides being transmitted by mosquitoes, another way of the virus being transmitted has been discovered as being through transplants. This year three transplant patients have been confirmed to have been infected with the West Nile Virus, one of whom died. The woman who died had received many blood transfusions from as ...