[West Nile Infection and Kidney Disease: Description of Two Clinical Cases in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients]

Abstract

The West Nile Virus (WNV), an RNA arbovirus, has been transmitted by wild birds and conveyed by ticks and mosquitoes, with wide diffusion all over the world; it is not transmitted from human to human. It can give clinical symptoms only in a minority of infected subjects such as fever, headache, muscle tiredness, visual disturbances, drowsiness, convulsions and muscle paralysis; in the most serious cases even potentially fatal encephalitis. In the literature there are few reports on WNV infection in patients with kidney diseases: here we report our experience on two patients on peritoneal dialysis infected by WNV with a revision of the literature.

Keywords: West Nile virus infection; chronic kidney disease; end-stage kidney failure; kidney transplant; peritoneal dialysis.