Study of a trend in the epidemic process of West Nile fever in the Volgograd Region over the period 2000-2009

Over the period 1999 to 2009, in the Volgograd Region there were 526 notified cases of West Nile fever (WNF), of them 46 (8.7%) patients died. The bulk of the patients were registered during its epidemic outbreak in 1999. The paper shows a trend in human morbidity and its association with the infection rates of mosquito carriers. It defines a role of birds, crows (Corvidae) in particular, in the active prevalence of WNF in the Volgograd Region. The data given in the Volgograd Region led to the conclusion that there was a sustained secondary natural focus of WNF with an epicenter being in the Volga-Aktyubinsk floodplain and with the involvement of Volgograd and Volzhsky into the epidemic process.