A Planet of Viruses - Carl Zimmer [26]
Vector-borne viruses like West Nile virus require a special versatility to complete their life cycle. Mosquitoes and birds are profoundly different kinds of hosts, with different body temperatures, different immune systems, and different anatomies. West Nile virus has to be able to thrive in both environments to complete its life cycle. Vector-borne viruses also pose special challenges to doctors and public health workers who want to stop their spread. They don’t require people to be in close contact to spread from host to host. Mosquitoes, in effect, give the viruses wings.
Studies on the genes of West Nile virus suggest that it first evolved in Africa. As birds migrated from Africa to other continents in the Old World, they spread the virus to new bird species. Along the way, West Nile virus infected humans. In Eastern Europe, epidemics broke out, producing some cases of encephalitis. In a 1996 epidemic in Romania, ninety thousand people came down with West Nile, leading to seventeen deaths. These new epidemics, first in Europe and later in the West, may have been the result of the virus infecting people who populations had not experienced it before. In Africa, by contrast, people may be immunized against West Nile virus after being infected while they’re young.
It is striking that the New World has been spared West Nile virus for so long. The flow of people across the Atlantic and Pacific was not enough to carry the virus to the Americas. Scientists cannot say exactly how West Nile virus finally landed in New York in 1999, but they have a few clues. The New World strain of West Nile virus is most closely related to viruses that caused an outbreak in birds in Israel in 1998. It’s possible that pet smugglers brought infected birds from the Near East to New York.
On its own, a single infected bird could not have triggered a nationwide epidemic. The viruses needed a new vector to spread. It just so happens that West Nile viruses can survive inside 62 species of mosquitoes that live in the United States. The birds of America turned out to be good hosts as well. All told, 150 American bird species have been found to carry West Nile virus. A few species, such as robins, blue jays, and house finches, turned out to be particularly good incubators.
Moving from bird to mosquito to bird, West Nile virus spread across the entire United States in just 4 years. And along the way, people became ill with West Nile virus as well. About 85 percent of infections in the United States cause no symptoms. The other 15 percent of infected people develop fevers, rashes, and headaches, and 38 percent of them have to go to a hospital, where they stay for about 5 days on average. About 1 in 150 infected people end up developing encephalitis. Between 1999 and 2008, U.S. doctors recorded 28,961 cases of West Nile virus. Of those victims, 1,131 died.
Once West Nile virus arrived in the United States, it settled into a regular cycle, a cycle set by the natural history of birds and mosquitoes. In the spring, robins and other birds produce new generations of chicks that are helpless targets for virus-carrying mosquitoes. By the summer, many birds are positively brimming with West Nile virus, raising the fraction of mosquitoes that carry it. It’s at that time of year that most human cases of West Nile virus emerge. When the temperature falls, mosquitoes die, and the viruses can no longer spread. It’s not clear how the virus survives North American winters. It’s