West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito borne single-stranded RNA flavivirus, which targets the human nervous system, and can generate viral infections ranging in severity from a mild flu-like presentation known as West Nile fever (WNF) up to an acute neuroinvasive form of illness known as West Nile meningoencephalitis (WNME).

For those infected, cases of WNV generally remain clinically unapparent or present mild flu-like symptoms subsiding before treatment is ever sought. For patients who do require treatment, options are limited, as neither a vaccine nor direct treatment has been fully devised to combat human cases of WNV; the only means of decreasing the morbidity and the mortality of the disease remains mosquito management and avoidance. For this reason, careful planning is necessary especially in the case of immunocompromised individuals, who are at greater risk of contracting more severe forms of the disease.

The immunosuppressive accommodations made by a mother’s body on the behalf of a fetus during pregnancy may leave expectant mothers more susceptible to WNV than people with full immunocompetence (1,2). There are data from animal models that support this concept (3). There have also been several documented cases of the virus being capable of maternal fetal transmission but not automatic (1,4,5,6).