Epidemiology of West Nile virus in Africa: An underestimated threat
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases·
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010075
- PMID
- 35007285
- PMCID
- PMC8789169
- OpenAlex
- W4205614667
- Study type
- Systematic review
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
The review highlights substantial knowledge gaps on WNV distribution, genetic diversity, ecology, transmission chains, and human and animal disease burden in Africa, and calls for further research and coordinated surveillance to inform both regional and global threat assessment.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
The review aims to synthesise evidence on the current distribution, genetic variability, ecology, and epidemiological patterns of West Nile virus (WNV) across the African continent, and to identify knowledge gaps relevant to disease burden assessment and global threat prediction.
Study design
A systematic-style narrative review searching PubMed and Google Scholar (21 January 2020) without language or date restrictions, supplemented by manual reference list checks and expert input, including 153 scientific papers published between 1940 and 2021.
Population and setting
The geographic setting is the African continent, covering evidence from at least 28 countries with documented WNV circulation in humans, animals, or vectors, alongside 19 countries flagged as lacking WNV epidemiological information.
Main findings
The review reports co-circulation of WNV lineages 1, 2, and 8 in Africa and identifies diverse WNV-competent mosquito vectors, mainly within the Culex genus. It also notes a lack of vector competence studies for several mosquito species found naturally infected, limited competence data on ticks, and evidence of WNV circulation in humans, animals, and vectors across at least 28 countries. The authors emphasise that serological surveys are needed to reduce bias in characterising WNV circulation.
Public-health relevance
The review highlights substantial knowledge gaps on WNV distribution, genetic diversity, ecology, transmission chains, and human and animal disease burden in Africa, and calls for further research and coordinated surveillance to inform both regional and global threat assessment.
Important limitations
The abstract does not enumerate explicit limitations of the review. Accordingly, this summary is constrained to the supplied single-article abstract and bibliographic metadata; the original paper would be required for decision-grade interpretation, including appraisal of search strategy rigour, inclusion criteria, risk-of-bias assessment, and geographic representativeness.
GIDS interpretation
From a discoverability standpoint, the article is indexed under West Nile virus with topic tags covering climate and environment, surveillance, and transmission dynamics, making it findable for users reviewing the breadth of African WNV evidence; however, the paper itself does not constitute a live surveillance signal and no connection to current GIDS surveillance data should be inferred from it.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 7 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.