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NEWS: No Wories Over West Nile Virus
Plans for dealing with an outbreak of West Nile virus have been drawn up by the Department of Health. Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer for England, said this had been done as a precaution, even though the UK has never had a human case of the disease. The risk of it arriving is considered to be very low.
West Nile virus is a mosquito-borne disease. It is usually transmitted when mosquitoes feed on infected birds and then pass the virus on to humans. Researchers at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxford found antibodies to the disease in half of the 30 species of birds they tested, suggesting exposure to the disease. It cannot be passed from person to person.
In about 80 per cent of cases, people will experience no symptoms at all. Up to 20 per cent of infected people will display mild flu-like symptoms, including fever, headache, body aches, nausea, vomiting and sometimes swollen glands or a rash. Most symptoms will usually pass within a few days, but some people can be ill for a number of weeks. Only about one in 150 people infected with West Nile virus will go on to develop severe illness such as meningitis or encephalitis.
In the US 264 people died from West Nile virus last year, and two cases of the disease were reported in Ireland in July. “Although these are the first cases we are aware of having been contracted in the Algarve, there have been sporadic clusters of West Nile virus in a number of European countries in recent decades. However, the risk of humans becoming infected in Europe is still thought to be low,” says Dr Dilys Morgan of the Health Protection Agency.
Sir Liam agrees.“The chances of West Nile virus arriving in the UK are low. It would need a number of factors to conspire to increase the risk. Factors such as climate change, long-haul travel and changes in land-use can facilitate the spread of infectious disease in unpredictable directions. However, the possibility cannot be ruled out and we have therefore produced this plan.”
A number of companies are working towards a vaccine, but until one is available, the best advice is probably to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes while on holiday.
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