West Nile virus in Europe: understanding the present to gauge the futureArchived
The appearance of West Nile virus in New York in 1999 and the unprecedented panzootic that followed, have stimulated a major research effort in the western hemisphere and a new interest in the presence of this virus in the Old World. This review considers current understanding of the natural history of this pathogen, with particular regard to transmission in Europe.
P. ReiterInsects and Infectious Disease Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, FranceEurosurveillance, March 2010,15(10):pii=19508, 4-10
The appearance of West Nile virus in New York in 1999 and the unprecedented panzootic that followed, have stimulated a major research effort in the western hemisphere and a new interest in the presence of this virus in the Old World. This review considers current understanding of the natural history of this pathogen, with particular regard to transmission in Europe.
VBORNET comment: 2010-25-11
The author revisits West Nile transmission in Europe, under the light of the outbreak that recently experienced the New World (1999-2009), and making an interesting parallel with Saint Louis encephalitis virus transmission in the USA. Therefore, many references report to observations made in the USA, and some more recent events from Europe are not included (Italy 2008-2009: see Lelli R., Euro Surveill. 2010, 15(15): pii=19538), as are not the 2010’ summer outbreaks. The author mainly emphasizes transmission between vertebrates, which contributed most probably to the maintenance of the transmission cycles and the speed of its dispersal through the Americas, but mosquito bites may still be considered a major transmission route and little comprehensive analysis is given on the diverse mosquito fauna contexts in Europe. In his conclusion, the author minimizes the impact of West Nile in Europe, based on little incidence on human and animal health. In 2010 viruses from lineage I and II have been isolated in several countries in Europe. Since the first identification of lineage II WN virus in birds in 2003-2004, it has also been reported in humans in Volgograd in 2007 and in Greece in 2010 (Bakonyi et al., Emerg Infect Dis. 2006, 12(4): 618-23; Papa A., ProMED-mail 16 Aug 2010, archive no. 20100816.2843).