Question

You have an internship this summer for the Cook County Department of Public Health. Your job is to work with the West Nile Virus group. You need to identify possible reservoirs, vectors, and determine how many people have been infected this year. Discuss which three types of organisms you will be examining and why.

Answer 1

Member of the family Flaviviridae also known as west nile virus group are single-stranded RNA virus, that include the Zika virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus., which will be investigated.

Zika virus is spread by daytime-active Aedes mosquitoes and is highly prevalent in South america and africa. Zika virus disease, causes no or only mild symptoms, similar to a very mild form of dengue fever. However , the virus can spread from a pregnant woman to her baby and results in microcephaly, severe brain malformations, and other birth defects.

Dengue virus is also spread by the aedes mosquitoes and iresults in high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash in an infected individual. Recovery generally takes two to seven days.In a small proportion of cases, the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs. This disease is common in more than 110 countries.

Yellow fever virus causes a short duration viral disease called yellow fever. The symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains particularly in the back, and headaches which are usually resolved within five days. It is spread in humans by mosquitoes and is highly prevalent in african countries.