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West Nile Virus (WNV) was first isolated from an adult woman in the West Nile District of Uganda in 1937 and was further characterized in the 1950s. Since then, the virus has been common in humans and birds in Africa, West Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Scientists with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) believe WNV first arrived in the Western Hemisphere with an outbreak in New York City during the summer of 1999. Although the U.S. virus bears a genetic resemblance to strains found in the Middle East, there is no scientific conclusiveness about its origin.
August 1999 also saw the first reported death in the United States from WNV. By the end of 1999, the metropolitan New York area was hardest hit, reporting more than 60 cases of severe disease with seven deaths. Horse and bird deaths were also reported in the United States last year. There currently is no reliable estimate of the number of worldwide human deaths from West Nile virus.
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