West Nile fever
human disease
West Nile fever is an infection by the West Nile virus, which is typically spread by mosquitoes. In about 80% of infections people have few or no symptoms. About 20% of people develop a fever, headache, vomiting, or a rash. In less than 1% of people, encephalitis or meningitis occurs, with associated neck stiffness, confusion, or seizures. Recovery may take weeks to months. The risk of death among those in whom the nervous system is affected is about 10%.
West Nile virus (WNV) is usually spread by mosquitoes that become infected when they feed on infected birds. Birds often carry the disease. Rarely the virus is spread through blood transfusions, organ transplants, or from mother to baby during pregnancy, delivery, or breastfeeding, but it otherwise does not spread directly between people. Risks for severe disease include being very young, over 60 years old, having a weak immune system, and having other health problems.
The public source identifies “West Nile fever” as human disease. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around West, Nile and fever.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11627066. The Library of Congress control number is sh00009585. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “West Nile fever” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.