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Nailing West Nile Virus
Joan Stephenson, PhD
JAMA. 2000;283:3060.
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| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings. |
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New York City public health officials may have been caught off guard last year by an unprecedented outbreak of West Nile virus (WNV) encephalitis. This season, however, along with heightened mosquito-control efforts, they have a new tool available to make their job easier: a rapid diagnostic test that can identify the infection within hours.
The report of the new diagnostic method, which was developed by scientists funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, appeared in the May 6 Lancet.
The test uses a technique called real-time polymerase chain reaction, which can detect minute amounts of WNV genetic material in samples of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from infected patients. Although the method did not detect WNV in the CSF of all infected patients who were tested, the study's findings suggest that the presence of the virus in spinal fluid is correlated with a higher risk . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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