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. 2001 Jul-Aug;7(4):675-8.
doi: 10.3201/eid0704.010414.

Clinical characteristics of the West Nile fever outbreak, Israel, 2000

M Y Chowers  1 , R Lang, F Nassar, D Ben-David, M Giladi, E Rubinshtein, A Itzhaki, J Mishal, Y Siegman-Igra, R Kitzes, N Pick, Z Landau, D Wolf, H Bin, E Mendelson, S D Pitlik, M Weinberger
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Clinical characteristics of the West Nile fever outbreak, Israel, 2000

M Y Chowers et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2001 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

West Nile (WN) virus is endemic in Israel. The last reported outbreak had occurred in 1981. From August to October 2000, a large-scale epidemic of WN fever occurred in Israel; 417 cases were confirmed, with 326 hospitalizations. The main clinical presentations were encephalitis (57.9%), febrile disease (24.4%), and meningitis (15.9%). Within the study group, 33 (14.1%) hospitalized patients died. Mortality was higher among patients >70 years (29.3%). On multivariate regressional analysis, independent predictors of death were age >70 years (odds ratio [OR] 7.7), change in level of consciousness (OR 9.0), and anemia (OR 2.7). In contrast to prior reports, WN fever appears to be a severe illness with high rate of central nervous system involvement and a particularly grim outcome in the elderly.

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