Clinical Treatment and Prevention

Key points

  • No treatment is available for West Nile virus (WNV) disease. Clinical management is supportive.
  • No WNV vaccines are licensed for use in humans.
  • Preventing WNV disease depends on community-level mosquito control programs, personal protective measures, and screening blood and organ donors.
  • Patients with WNV disease should not donate blood for 4 months after their illness.
Doctor handing out a bottle of pills

Treatment

Clinical management is supportive. No medicines are available to treat WNV disease. Various drugs have been evaluated or empirically used for WNV disease. However, none has shown conclusive benefit to date.

Mild illness

Patients can take over-the-counter medication for fever, pain, and headaches; stay hydrated; and rest.

Severe meningeal symptoms

Patients often require pain control for headaches and antiemetic therapy and rehydration for associated nausea and vomiting.

Encephalitis

Patients require close monitoring for the development of elevated intracranial pressure, seizures, or inability to protect their airway.

Acute flaccid myelitis

Patients should be monitored closely for acute neuromuscular respiratory failure that can develop rapidly and require prolonged ventilatory support.

Treating and protecting immunocompromised patients

People who are immunocompromised because of underlying conditions or immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory medications have a higher risk of getting seriously ill and dying from viruses spread by mosquitoes and ticks, such as West Nile virus.

Keep Reading Review clinical guidance for immunocompromised patients

Prevention

No licensed vaccines or medicines are available to prevent WNV disease in people. In the absence of a vaccine, prevention of WNV disease depends on community-level mosquito control programs to reduce vector densities, personal protective measures to decrease exposure to infected mosquitoes, and screening of blood and organ donors.

Counsel patients to prevent mosquito bites

  • Use Environmental Protection Agency-registered insect repellent.
  • Wear long, loose-fitting shirts and pants.
  • Avoid being outside between dusk and dawn.
  • Keep mosquitoes outside.
Review prevention tips

Transmission through blood and organ donation

Blood and some organ donors in the United States are screened for WNV infection. Healthcare professionals should remain vigilant for the possible transmission of WNV through blood transfusion or organ transplantation.

  • Any suspected WNV infections temporally associated with blood transfusion or organ transplantation should be reported promptly to the state or local health department.
  • People with confirmed WNV infections should not donate blood for 120 days (4 months) after their illness.
Print
Content Source:
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID)