West Nile Virus

Although autumn has descended upon the U.S., particularly the Midwest, I still heard about West Nile Virus. Thankfully, the number of cases have decreased because mosquitoes and their larvae couldn't outlive the long winter. I guess that's one really good reason to hope for a long winter.

Anyway, I was mentioning this to my boyfriend and he asked what West Nile Virus did to humans and whether it a serious threat. I looked it up and found that although it is tearing through bird populations, it is not really a human detriment.

According to an article about the virus in Clinical Reference Systems:

• It's seasonal, with peak times in Aug.-Sept.
• Most people that get it recover fairly quickly and only 1% of cases are serious.
• People over 70 are most likely to develop a serious case of the virus due to their weakened immunity systems.
• Symptoms of infection may include: fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, skin rash, swollen lymph glands.

If you're a bird, that's another story.