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. 2001 Jul-Aug;7(4):675–678. doi: 10.3201/eid0704.010414

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

M Y Chowers 1, R Lang 1, F Nassar 1, D Ben-David 1, M Giladi 1, E Rubinshtein 1, A Itzhaki 1, J Mishal 1, Y Siegman-Igra 1, R Kitzes 1, N Pick 1, Z Landau 1, D Wolf 1, H Bin 1, E Mendelson 1, S D Pitlik 1, M Weinberger 1
PMCID: PMC2631759  PMID: 11585531

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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Selected References

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