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

Most people from the teens up into their late 40's are not very susceptible to this virus. Anyone in this age group does not need to worry about contracting any illness from this virus, because their immune systems are healthy enough to keep the virus from getting out of hand. Anyone truly concerned with the spread of the West Nile Virus should look at the numbers reported. Although statistics on the West Nile Virus may look like high numbers, they are seemingly insignificant if you compared then to the numbers on the AIDS virus. Statistics on the West Nile Virus from the last four years have been compiled.

Among most people in the United States, there is more hype about the disease than is necessary. The chances of someone even having symptoms of illness when they contract the virus are one out of five. The symptoms are usually a mild fever and some aching. The serious problems that might occur, such as encephalitis, only hit one out of 150 of infected people (Manning, 1). Less than 1% of all infections will end up as a neurological illness. The virus will generally be stopped as soon as it gets into the body (Craven, 2). Generally, sickness hits the elderly or those older than 50 and those with weak immune systems. They're the ones with the highest risk (Lok, 3).

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 many as 60 donors. Officials are unable to tell whether the woman was infected by a mosquito or if one of the donors had been infected. Along with those three patients infected, another fourth patient was found to have simila

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