La Crosse virus neuroinvasive disease: the kids are not alright

Abstract

Abstract La Crosse virus (LACV) is the most common cause of neuroinvasive mosquito-borne disease in children within the United States. Despite more than 50 years of recognized endemicity in the United States, the true burden of LACV disease is grossly underappreciated, and there remain severe knowledge gaps that inhibit public health interventions to reduce morbidity and mortality. Long-standing deficiencies in disease surveillance, clinical diagnostics and therapeutics, actionable entomologic and environmental risk indices, case response capacity, public awareness, and availability of community support groups clearly frame LACV disease as neglected. Here we synthesize salient prior research and contextualize our findings as an assessment of current gaps and opportunities to develop a framework to prevent, detect, and respond to LACV disease. The persistent burdens of LACV disease clearly require renewed public health attention, policy, and action.