Usutu: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Key points

  • Infection with Usutu virus can cause a mild illness with fever and rash or more severe disease with confusion, weakness, and seizures.
  • If you think you or a family member might have Usutu virus disease (Usutu), talk with your healthcare provider.
  • There are no specific medicines to treat Usutu.
  • Rest, fluids, and pain medications might relieve symptoms.
Hand in a hospital bed

Symptoms

  • Common symptoms include rash, fever, and yellowing of the eyes (jaundice).
  • Symptoms of severe illness can include high fever, tremors, and meningitis (inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord) or encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).
  • The symptoms of Usutu might be similar to and possibly mistaken for those of West Nile virus disease.

Diagnosis

Talk to your healthcare provider if you have any symptoms or signs described above and recently traveled to an area where Usutu virus occurs (Africa, Europe, and the Middle East). Your healthcare provider can order laboratory tests to diagnose Usutu.

To learn more about testing, visit our Healthcare Providers page.

Treatment

  • There are no specific medicines to treat Usutu.
  • Rest, fluids, and over-the-counter pain medicine might relieve some symptoms.
  • Some patients might need to be hospitalized for intravenous fluids and supportive care for pain, fever, or other related problems.
Print
Content Source:
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID)