New study links West Nile virus to Shorter Life Span

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine had begun to notice an unsettling trend.
Among a group of more than 4,000 Houston area patients who'd become ill with West Nile virus since 2002, the vast majority, about 94%, survived the infection. But then, as months and years rolled by, many of them became ill again — and died.

"These weren't just 80 or 90-year-old people," said Dr. Kristy Murray, an associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor's National School of Tropical Medicine. "They were in their 50s, 60s, sometimes even their 40s. And we were really concerned, because many of these people were dying at a young age."

Murray and her colleagues have now confirmed their suspicions: West Nile virus is far Deadlier than previously believed, with deaths attributable to the mosquito-borne disease occurring not just in the immediate aftermath of an infection, but also years after patients seem to have recovered, according to a study presented Monday at a meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Atlanta.
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"In much the same way that research into Zika virus is showing a more Destructive virus than originally thought, we are still discovering previously unreported long-term destructive effects of West Nile," Higgs said.

Murray and her colleagues looked at 4,144 West Nile infections in Texas between 2002 and 2012, finding that 286 of the patients died within 90 days. But after searching patient names against a registry of deaths maintained by the state health department, they found that another 268 died months or years later.

In those cases, Renal failure was a leading cause, confirming previous research that suggests the virus aggressively attacks a patient's kidneys, Murray said. West Nile survivors are 11 times more likely to die of kidney disease compared to the general population, according to the study.

When accounting for those who died later, the researchers found that 13% of West Nile patients eventually die as a result of the disease. That's more than three-times higher than the West Nile death rate reported between 1999 and 2015 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Even if you survive the infection, you could still be at risk of premature death because of kidney disease or other secondary diseases..."
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