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Notice to Clinicians
The Hawaii Department of Health requests that all suspected cases of West Nile virus (WNV) infection be immediately reported by telephone or facsimile and that appropriate laboratory specimens be promptly submitted for testing. The timely identification of persons with acute WNV or other arboviral infection may have significant public health implications and will augment our response to reduce the risk of additional human infections.
Your role in identifying these persons is critical. Clinical information regarding the features and diagnosis of WNV may also be found on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
If you suspect a patient may have a WNV infection, please download and print the
"West Nile Virus Initial Case and Laboratory Submission Report" PDF found on this
page.
You must fax this mandatory form to the Disease Investigation
Branch when the test is ordered for your sample to be considered for WNV testing.
If you have a patient who has signs and symptoms that are compatible with WNV Fever infection and he/she has recent
travel to an area where WNV is known to have occurred, please collect and order the following:
Collect Blood in an SST Gold-Top tube and order WNV MAC ELISA IgM/IgG;
If, within the first 2 days of onset, the patient has signs and symptoms of WNV fever and encephalitis, the lab will accept CSF to
test for WNV by PCR. If the CSF draw is collected beyond 2 days from onset it will not be tested by PCR. Please also send a
blood serum sample with the CSF.
Please have the lab draw a convalescent sample at least 8 days post acute sample, also testing for WNV IgM/IgG. This will
determine if there is a rise in antibody titer from acute sample to convalescent sample.
Contact the Disease Investigation Branch for any questions you may have regarding the submission of specimens.
Serologic testing for WNV is available free of charge.
Phone: (808) 586-4586 After-hours on Oahu: (808) 566-5049
Fax: (808) 586-4595 After-hours on Neighbor Islands: (800) 360-2575
Submission form Human WNV testing
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