Library · Microorganism
West Nile virus
Make it clearer
West Nile virus is an arbovirus, that is a virus that travels inside an insect, in this case the mosquito. On the outside it has an envelope, a fatty layer that coats it, and inside it keeps its information in positive single-stranded RNA. It belongs to the family Flaviviridae.
Its entry is simple and orderly. The mosquito bites and leaves virus particles in the skin along with its saliva. Right there the virus multiplies inside dendritic cells, which are immune surveillance cells, and keratinocytes, the cells that make up the skin. Those infected cells then travel to the nearby lymph nodes, where the virus multiplies again, and from there it passes into the blood and spreads through the body.
Two facts frame the picture. First: up to 80% of infected people feel nothing. Second: the virus keeps circulating in nature between birds and mosquitoes, and birds are its main reservoir. Humans enter the cycle but do not continue it: the chain goes on without them.
In brief
West Nile virus is a mosquito-borne arbovirus, enveloped and with positive single-stranded RNA, from the family Flaviviridae.
The mosquito deposits it in the skin with its saliva; it replicates in dendritic cells and keratinocytes, moves to the lymph nodes and from there into the blood.
Up to 80% of infections cause no symptoms; the cycle is maintained in birds and mosquitoes, and humans are usually a dead-end host.
Humans enter the cycle but do not continue it: the chain goes on without them.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingWest Nile Virus, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated