Page "West Nile virus" Paragraph 43

A number of various diseases may present with symptoms similar to those caused by a clinical West Nile virus infection.

Those causing neuroinvasive disease symptoms include the enterovirus infection and bacterial meningitis.

Accounting for differential diagnoses is a crucial step in the definitive diagnosis of WNV infection.

Consideration of a differential diagnosis is required when a patient presents with unexplained febrile illness, extreme headache, encephalitis or meningitis.

Diagnostic and serologic laboratory testing utilizing PCR testing and viral culture of CSF to identify the specific pathogen causing the symptoms, is the only currently available means of differentiating between causes of encephalitis and meningitis.