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CDC: West Nile most common arboviral disease in 2013
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West Nile virus was the leading arboviral disease in the United States in 2013, with 2,469 cases reported, and 51% of those cases were neuroinvasive disease, according to the CDC.
The next most commonly reported arboviral diseases were La Crosse virus (85 cases), Jamestown Canyon virus (22 cases), Powassan virus (15 cases) and eastern equine encephalitis virus (eight cases). These data do not include cases of dengue.
“[West Nile virus] and other arboviruses continue to cause serious illness in substantial numbers of persons annually,” CDC researchers wrote in MMWR. “Maintaining surveillance remains important to help direct and promote prevention activities.”
There were 2,605 cases nationally of notifiable arboviral diseases, and 53% of these were neuroinvasive disease, for a national incidence of 0.44 per 100,000 population. No cases were reported from Alaska or Hawaii.
Among the cases of West Nile virus, 90% developed the illness from July to September. More than half of the patients were hospitalized and 119 died. The highest incidence rates were in Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. Fifty-one percent of the cases were reported in six states: California, Colorado, Illinois, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas.
Among children, La Crosse virus was the most common cause of neuroinvasive disease. The median age of patients was 7 years, and 89% of the patients with the virus were younger than 18 years. Most of the patients developed illness from July to October, and the highest incidence rates were in North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. These four states reported 78% of the cases. Eight patients were hospitalized and two died.
“Health care providers should consider arboviral infections in the differential diagnosis of cases of aseptic meningitis and encephalitis, obtain appropriate specimens for laboratory testing and promptly report cases to public health authorities,” the researchers wrote. “Because human vaccines against domestic arboviruses are not available, prevention of arboviral disease depends on community and household efforts to reduce vector population, personal protective measures to decrease exposure to mosquitoes and ticks and screening blood donors.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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