West Nile Virus 

WEST NILE, FLAVIVIRIDAE

DISEASE OR DISORDER CAUSED BY VIRUS? 3 different effects on humans

DESCRIPTION OF VIRUS STRUCTURE?    

HOW IS VIRUS TRANSMITTED? through misquito vectors, who bite birds and the infection grows in them and when other mosiqutoes bite the birds they get the virus. Then when they go on to bite humans.

HOW CAN TRANSMISSION BE PREVENTED? Theres no way to prevent it once the mosquito bites a mammal the disease does not spread and will eventually die off

DESCRIBE TYPE OF BODY CELLS ATTACKED? protiens change to amino acids. In blood stream it multiplies and goes to brain, crossing the barrier that seperated the blood from the control nervous system, once this happens symptons come.

WHAT ARE THE SYMPTONS OF INFECTION? 3-8 days of incubation followed by fever, headache, chill.s diaphoresis, weakness, drowsiness, in rare cases decreased consciousness, sometimes approaching near- coma states.

HOW DOES THE BODY DEFEND ITSELF? it really cant, you just ahve to wait for the virus to get flushed out of your body

ARE THERE ANY TREATMENTS/VACCINES? no vaccines so far, hepititas C could help out and being in hospital care could help decrease it aswell.

INTERESTING FACTS

-less then 1% of people can experiance paraylis and other severe disorders

-infants can get it if their mother has it and breast feeds the kid

-pregnent or older aldults have more risk to severe symptons

-to help reduce risk of mosquitoes you can empty unused swimming pools, and clogged roofs

-west nile emerged 100 years ago.

By: TEJPAUL RANDHAWA

west nile virus is a virus of the family "flaviviridae" !!!

how does the virus affect us

the virus affect humans in three ways:

-asymptotic infection,which means that the patient does not experience any noticable symptoms ,and the disease might not be discovered until the patient undergoes medical tests

-fever

-meningitis or encephalitis (acute inflammation of the brain)

how is the virus transmitted

the virus is transmitted through mosquito vectors,which bite and infect birds.the birds amplyfying hosts,developing sufficient viral levels to transmit the infection to other biting mosquitoes which go on to infect other birds and also humans.

mammals do not further transmit the virus .

we can devide mosquitoes that are transmitting the virus into two groups:

-one bites birds

-one bites humans

where can we find the virus

the virus has been described in:

-africa

-europe

-middle east

-asia

-oceania

and most recently in NORTH  AMERICA

how can we control the virus

to control the virus we have to control the mosquitoes by eluminating the mosquito breeding sites,so the mosquitoes are not able to reproduce and sooner or later they will becme extinct.

but also the people have to take control by spending less time outside,wearing long covering clothing,and applying bug repellent that contains "DEET"(an insect repellent chemical),and ensuring that mosquitoes cannot enter buildings.

how does the body defend itself

if the body is infected with"west nile virus",it defends itself most likely with a fever,wich means that the body increases its temperature to levels that are above normal(higher than 36.8 celsius)

treatments of vaccines

there is no specific treatment for west nile virus infection.

intensive supportive therapy is directed toward the complication of brain infection.

there is no specific antiobiotic for the infection.

there is also no vaccine to prevent the virus.

some interesting facts

-risk of infection is highest during mosquito season(late summer&early fall)

-virus broke out in new york,1999

-virus can also be transmitted by ticks

-there is a vaccine for infected horses

-the virus came to canada in 2002

by Friederike Schmischke