Therapy
The therapy is symptomatic. This means that the individual symptoms, such as fever or aching limbs, are treated. The actual cause, the virus, is not treated because there is no medication against the virus.
A specific drug is being searched for in research. Since it is a viral disease, antibiotics cannot be used for therapy. The body’s own immune system is normally well able to fight the virus itself.
As with a flu, one should rest a lot and take in sufficient liquid. If necessary, antipyretic medication such as paracetamol or ibuprofen can be taken. Medications can also help with nausea.
Patients do not need to be isolated, as they are not infectious to others. If the central nervous system is also affected or the symptoms are unusually severe, treatment is carried out in a hospital. When symptoms occur that affect the central nervous system, such as encephalitis, intensive care treatment in a hospital is necessary, allowing a quick response to potentially fatal complications.
Vaccination and prophylaxis
So far there is no vaccination against West Nile virus for humans, only for horses. Even though intensive research is underway to develop a vaccine. Therefore the best prophylaxis is to protect yourself from mosquito bites when you are in a risk area.
Long clothes and mosquito spray serve for this purpose. At night you should sleep under a mosquito net. In addition, fly screens for doors and windows are a good idea.
Mosquitoes are mainly active from dusk until dawn. In some endemic areas, there are programs to contain the spread of the virus-transmitting mosquitoes. Insecticides are used to destroy the mosquito breeding grounds. However, these programs often do not have the desired success. This topic might also be of interest to you: Mosquito protection
Diagnosis
Often the diagnosis cannot be made. As the symptoms usually last only a short time and therefore the virus is only detectable in the blood for a short period of time. The body forms antibodies against the virus to fight it.
These can only be detected in the blood after a few days, when the symptoms have often already subsided. West Nile Fever cannot be diagnosed on the basis of the symptoms alone, as the symptoms are very unspecific and can also be caused by other viruses. In the case of an acute illness with fever and neurological symptoms, however, West Nile virus should also be considered as the cause if the person affected had previously been in a risk area.
Due to the relationship of West Nile virus to other viruses, false test results in blood tests are also more frequent. If the central nervous system is affected during the course of the disease, the virus can also be detected in the cerebral fluid (liquor). As already mentioned, the diagnosis of West Nile fever is mainly done by a blood test. Various test procedures are used to detect either virus components, such as viral RNA, or human antibodies against the virus. The virus components can only be detected at the beginning of the disease, the antibodies only after a few days.
