What is West Nile Virus: It is a virus of the family 'Flaviviridae', found in numerous regions. Photographs from a high resolution electron microscope reveal the virus as spherical with a slightly bumpy surface but no projecting protein limbs. It has a resemblance in appearance to the 'dengue fever' virus.
What causes West Nile Virus: It mainly infects birds, but is also the cause of a number of conditions in humans and horses, and some other mammals. West Nile virus is a virus mainly transmitted to people through the bite of an infected mosquito.
Symptoms Of West Nile Virus: In most people West Nile Virus, infection causes no symptoms to appear. In other people it causes flu-like symptoms known as West Nile Fever. The virus is able to pass the blood-brain barrier, and the most serious effects are inflammation of the brain, which can be fatal. Persons over 45 years of age are at higher risk of developing severe disease, the symptoms of which include fever, nausea, stiff neck and changes in mental status. In rare cases patients develop sudden paralysis.
Treatment For West Nile Virus: Morpholino antisense oligos have shown some activity against West Nile Virus in experiments, and are currently in clinical trial stage as a West Nial Virus treatment.
West Nile Virus Prevention: The best way to prevent West Nile Virus is to stop the mosquitoes from biting you. There are a lot of things you can do to avoid the mosquitos, such as: Spend less time outdoors between dusk to dawn. Empty standing water from bird baths, pails or other containers. If you have a small pond or water garden, add fish, since fish will eat the mosquito larvae. Add a fountain or waterfall, since moving water deters mosquitoes. Make sure your open windows are covered securely with screens, screens that have no holes or other openings in them.
There is a website that provides cures, facts and other great information on the West Nile Virus and numerous medical conditions, the website is called: All About Health, and can be found at this url:
http://www.rb59.com/medical-health-info
By Robert W. Benjamin
Copyright ? 2007
You may publish this article in your ezine, newsletter, or on your web site as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and without modification except for formatting needs or grammar corrections.
Robert W. Benjamin has been in the software business on the internet for over 5 years, and has been producing low-cost software for the past 25+ years. He first released products on the AMIGA and C64 computer systems in the late 1970's-80's.
