Given the low incidence of indigenously acquired neurotropic flavivirus infections in the United States, however, this similarity would seem to be more of a theoretical concern than a practical one (i.e., the chance of a person in the United States acquiring WNV encephalitis or meningitis during a given transmission season, maintaining a significant level of virus-specific IgM activity over the ensuing 8–12 months, and then again developing a viral encephalitis, meningitis, or being re-exposed to WNV during the subsequent transmission season is highly unlikely). This evidence concerns the gene CD40LG and encephalitis.