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Three strains of a filterable virus closely related to West Nile have been isolated from the blood of children living on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. 2. The 3 strains of virus appear to be immunologically identical. 3. In addition to a strong relationship and apparent identity with West Nile virus, the Egyptian virus crosses, although to a lesser degree, with both Japanese B and St. Louis encephalitis viruses. This was found by both neutralization and complement fixation tests. 4. The virus produces a marked encephalomyelitis in monkeys inoculated intracerebrally. Lesions are found throughout the spinal cord and brain including the cerebellum. 5. Chimpanzees develop a silent infection following intracutaneous infection of the virus. This is characterized by a viremia lasting 3 days followed by the appearance of both neutralizing and complement fixing antibodies. 6. The Egyptian virus was not neutralized by human gamma globulin collected in the United States, nor by 24 different hyperimmune sera, each containing antibodies to an antigenically distinct virus type. 7. Infection with this virus has been widespread in the local Egyptian population in 1950, with more than 70% of the inhabitants aged 4 years and over having both neutralizing and complement fixing antibodies.
Melnick et al. (Wed,) studied this question.