West Nile Virus and Wildlife

Abstract

the director of infectious diseases at the Flushing Medical Center in Queens notified the New York City Health Department that three admitted patients had an apparently neurological illness. The symptoms included fever, weakness, and confusion. As the number of similarly ill patients grew to five, doctors noted that many were elderly and had spent time outdoors on previous summer evenings. On the basis of this information, and the fact that one of the patients appeared to have encephalitis, the causative agent was suspected to be a mosquito-borne virus.