[West Nile fever in Israel--past and present]

The present outbreak of West Nile Fever in Israel, which started in July 2000, caused some amount of panic among the Israeli public and interest among the medical, environmental and veterinary professions. The authors review the relevant literature and demonstrate that this disease has been recorded in the last 50 years in Israel and is highly endemic in this country. The last outbreak in the late summer and autumn of the year 2000 was unique in its size: 429 serological proved cases and 29 deaths. However, the current sudden rise in the number of cases, unknown in preceding years, is due to a combination of a few factors: high incidence of the disease among migrating wild and domestic birds, presence of mosquitoes near susceptible human populations, awareness among the medical profession and recent introduction of a specific serological diagnosis test in only one central laboratory and its present availability to Israeli physicians. The authors review the past and present history of West Nile Fever in Israel. They discuss the implications of this outbreak on public health policy and its prevention, stressing the need for cooperation between health, environmental and veterinary services and local authorities in order to prevent the next outbreak.