Clinical Findings of West Nile Virus Infection in Hospitalized Patients, New York and New Jersey, 2000

Abstract

Following the emergence of West Nile (WN) virus in New York in 1999, state and local health departments in the eastern United States, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), established surveillance systems for detecting WN virus activity (1). New York City and New Jersey established active and enhanced passive surveillance systems for human disease that encouraged physician, infection control practitioner, and laboratory reporting of suspected cases and provided testing for WN virus. This report details the clinical characteristics of 19 hospitalized human cases that occurred during the summer and fall of 2000; all patients resided in either New York City (NYC) or New Jersey.