BioMed Research International
Volume 2015 (2015), Article ID 582045, 1 page
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/582045

Editorial

Vector-Borne Viral Diseases

Penghua Wang,¹ Fengwei Bai,² Gong Cheng,³ Jianfeng Dai,⁴ and Michael J. Conway⁵

¹Section of Infectious Diseases, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06512, USA
²Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406, USA
³Department of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
⁴Institute of Biology and Medical Sciences, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Infection and Immunity, Soochow University, Suzhou 215123, China
⁵Central Michigan University College of Medicine, CMED, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859, USA

Received 18 November 2014; Accepted 18 November 2014

Copyright © 2015 Penghua Wang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

In this special issue, we have solicited review articles on West Nile virus epidemiology and research articles on dengue diseases.

N. J. Samanta et al. report the occurrence of West Nile virus antibodies in wild birds, horses, and humans serum samples collected between 2010 and 2014 from different areas of Poland. By using multiple ELISA screening, they found West Nile virus positive serum in wild birds, patients, and horses. They suggest that West Nile virus is already present in their climate zone and in their ecosystem.

By using a meta-analysis, H. Zhang et al. study the association between 11 clinical symptoms and the outcome of dengue diseases. They found five symptoms demonstrating an increased risk for severe dengue diseases (SDD), including bleeding, vomiting/nausea, abdominal pain, skin rashes, and hepatomegaly. They concluded that bleeding (hematemesis/melena), vomiting/nausea, abdominal pain, skin rashes, and hepatomegaly may predict the development of SDD in patients with DF.

J. Cime-Castillo et al. report the role of mosquito sialic acid in the life cycle of dengue virus. They identified a putative enzyme involved in sialic acid synthesis and evaluated its function in vitro. Sialic acid interactions were found to be important for dengue virus binding and perhaps transmission.

C. Napoli et al. describe the West Nile virus surveillance system of Italy, which integrates data from human and animal infections.

C. Chancey et al. review the global epidemiology of West Nile virus.

D. Di Sabatino et al. review the main epidemiological findings on WNV occurrence in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin from 2009 to 2013 and discuss potential future spread patterns.

Penghua  Wang
Fengwei Bai
Gong Cheng
Jianfeng Dai
Michael J. Conway