Recognizing West Nile Virus

West Nile virus can cause encephalitis, a swelling of the brain, or meningitis, an inflammation of the brain lining and spinal cord.
Symptoms may appear anywhere from three to fifteen days after infection, according to health officials. Often, however, people who have become infected experience no symptoms at all.
Those who do may suffer from a fever, headache and body aches, and occasionally a skin rash on the trunk of the body. Swollen lymph glands are another possible sign of infection. Such mild symptoms generally last for a few days.
More severe infection may be marked by neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions or muscle weakness. The stronger symptoms may last for several weeks, and the neurological effects may be permanent.
In the worst cases, most common among the elderly, an infection can lead to paralysis and death. Most confirmed cases in New York City have been diagnosed in people more than 50 years old. But only one in one thousand people who contract the disease will die, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.