摘 要：摘 要：西尼罗病毒(West Nile virus，WNV)属黄病毒科，为正单链RNA病毒。它在人类中的感染导致以发热为主要症状的传染性疾病，主要由蚊虫叮咬传播。自20世纪50年代首例报告西尼罗病毒自然感染所致脑炎后的几十年内，西尼罗病毒脑炎在欧洲及中亚地区散在、小规模流行。西尼罗病毒脑炎于1999年在美国的爆发及随后几年在北美的流行引起了极大的关注。这次爆发流行中新出现的种种迹象，如其中间宿主——野生鸟类的大量死亡，人类感染者中中枢神经系统受损比例的增高等，提示近期的遗传变异已使西尼罗病毒感染的病理学与流行病学发生了较显著的变化。另外，随着感染的流行，蚊虫叮咬以外的传播途径，如输血、器官移植、母婴传播等日益受到人们重视。同时，人们对阻止疫情所急需的疫苗的研制也在进行之中。本文就近几年来对西尼罗病毒的感染、免疫与流行病学方面的研究进展进行了综述。
关键词：西尼罗病毒；感染；脑炎；流行病学
Abstract: Abstract: West Nile virus (WNV) belongs to Flaviviridae which is positive, single strand RNA virus. It causes infectious disease in human featured by fever. The major transmitting route is by mosquito bites. Since the first report of natural infected encephalitis caused by WNV in 1950s, last century, WNV infection has been endemic in the Europe and middle-west Asia for decades. The outbreak of WNV encephalitis in the United States in 1999 and subsequent epidemic in North America in the following years cause great concerns. The new features demonstrated in this outbreak, e.g. numerous deaths of wild birds and increased incidence of central nervous system damage in human cases suggest that genetic mutation has significantly altered the pathogenesis and epidemiology of the virus. Moreover, with the development of the epidemic, there are more and more concerns on the transmitting routes in addition to mosquito bites, such as blood transfusion, organ transplantation and vertical transmission. On the other hand, efforts have been made in vaccine development to stop this devastating infectious disease. This article reviews the current researches in WNV regarding its infection, immunity and epidemiology.
Key words: West Nile virus; infection; encephalitis; epidemiology
