Emerging Threat: First Case of West Nile Virus Encephalitis in Peshawar, Pakistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37762/jgmds.11-1.573Keywords:
West Nile virus, Flavivirus, Arboviruses, Encephalitis, Meningoencephalitis, Emerging communicable diseases, PakistanAbstract
West Nile Virus (WNV), once confined primarily to Africa, is now an emerging communicable disease in Pakistan. Clinical cases and serological evidence of WNV infection have been documented in both human and animal populations in the Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan. We report the first case of WNV encephalitis in an 80-year-old hypertensive and diabetic lady from district Peshawar. Sadly, the patient did not survive. This case highlights the importance of thinking of zebras in addition to horses when confronted with the sound of hoofbeats, as ‘zebra diagnoses’ do exist. Clinicians shall consider novel infections when evaluating patients with fever and altered mental status.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Ellul M, Solomon T. Acute encephalitis - diagnosis and management. Clin Med (Lond). 2018;18(2):155-9
Habarugira G, Suen WW, Hobson-Peters J, Hall RA, Bielefeldt-Ohmann H. West Nile virus: an update on pathobiology, epidemiology, diagnostics, control and ”one health” implications. Pathogens. 2020;9(7)
Waseem S, Shaikh TG, Ahmed SH, Usama RM, Asghar MS, Tahir MJ. West Nile virus outbreak in Pakistan: another potential public health threat in the pipeline? Ann Med Surg (Lond). 2022;77:103663
Chowdhury P, Khan SA. Global emergence of West Nile virus: threat & preparedness in special perspective to India. Indian J Med Res. 2021;154(1):36-50
Kashif N, Iqbal S, Ahmad R, Ahsan A, Khan NA, Shah SA. Evaluation of thrombocytopenia and anemia along with seasonal variations in dengue fever. Khyber J Sci. 2021;14(1):25-30
Zohaib A, Saqib M, Beck C, Hussain MH, Lowenski S, Lecollinet S, et al. High prevalence of West Nile virus in equines from the two provinces of Pakistan. Epidemiol Infect. 2015;143(9):1931-5
Hayes CG, Baqar S, Ahmed T, Chowdhry MA, Reisen WK. West Nile virus in Pakistan. 1. Sero-epidemiological studies in Punjab Province. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1982;76(4):431-6
Khan E, Barr KL, Farooqi JQ, Prakoso D, Abbas A, Khan ZY, et al. Human West Nile virus disease outbreak in Pakistan, 2015-2016. Front Public Health. 2018;6:20
Endale A, Medhin G, Darfiro K, Kebede N, Legesse M. Magnitude of antibody cross-reactivity in medically important mosquito-borne flaviviruses: A systematic review. Infect Drug Resist. 2021;14:4291-9
Santini M, Haberle S, Židovec-Lepej S, Savić V, Kusulja M, Papić N, et al. Severe West Nile virus neuroinvasive disease: clinical characteristics, short- and long-term outcomes. Pathogens. 2022;11(1)
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Imran Qadir Khattak, Najeeb Ullah, Yasir Ali, Muhammad Irfan, Ume Hani Naeem, Anmol Ali
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
