Treatment Options

This topic is extremely important, for those who are unfortunate enough to have contracted this virus, getting it actually treated is essential. This isn't a disease one wants to live with, so treatment must be fast, comprehensive, and without too many complications or adverse side effects.

Unfortunately, at this time, there is no vaccine or anti-viral medications for West Nile Virus. This means that you can not get an injection with a weakened virus in hopes your body will create the proper antibodies for the virus in case infection occurs. Anti-viral medication is not a vaccine, but a medicine that actually will kill the virus and lessen the viral load in the body after being infection. Since neither of these exist currently, treatment must be focused on ways to secondarily heal from infection. This means that supportive modalities must be implemented to encourage the body to fight and heal naturally. This includes keeping hydrated with intravenous fluids, proper pain management, proper nutrition and activity levels, and boosting the immune system.

The most frequent symptoms are headache, fever, arthralgia, and sometimes encephalitis. The headache, fever and arthralgia can be treated suitably with over the counter pain relief and fever reducers. The encephalitis though usually requires hospital stay to reduce infection in the brain, reduce intra-cranial pressure, and prevent further infection throughout the body.

There is current research being done in the field of treatment with interferon. Interferon is a medication that acts as immune cell therapy. This therapy is having preliminary tests with encephalitis caused by specifically West Nile virus. There are early reports that the patients who received interferon healed faster, and with less side effects than those that did not receive the interferon treatment. This will be something that is hopefully explored to its fullest and will lead to a faster and more comprehensive treatment option than natural healing.

The best defense though, is always a good offense. When it comes to a virus, which is notoriously difficult to treat across the spectrum, prevention is the best treatment. If there is never an actual infection present, there is nothing to treat. And since the West Nile virus is transmitted to humans through the vector of carrier mosquitoes, we must fight the bite! This is simple with some easy to follow steps whenever you are outside, this is an easy info-graphic to remember what to do and how to do it.

photo credit

References:

The Mayo Clinic. (2012). Disease and conditions: West Nile virus.
Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/west-nile-virus/basics/symptoms/con-20023076

Virology, Pathology, and Clinical Manifestations of West Nile Virus Disease - Volume 11, Number 8-August 2005 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal - CDC. (n.d.). Retrieved May 4, 2015, from http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/11/8/05-0289b_article