West Nile Virus infection in perinatology

Abstract

West Nile Virus causes one of the so-called emerging infectious diseases and is considered to be one of the major epidemic problems in many countries. Most of the WNV-infected-people do not develop clinical symptoms. Nevertheless, Infection with WNV can lead to severe neurological diseases, classically associated with West Nile fever. Among several neurological manifestations that have been observed, encephalitis is the most typical presentation. Transplacental passage is one of the confirmed transmission ways, but neonatal infection by breast feeding is also probable. Congenital WNV infection has been accompanied by bilateral chorioretinitis and severe malformation of the fetal central nervous system. At present, due to the lack of sufficient data, possibilities to conclude on the nature of the relationship between WNV infection and fetal malformations are limited.