Fifty-one new cases of infection from West Nile Virus were reported in Italy from 12 to 18 September 2024, bringing the total number of reports notified since May 382 to 2024.
Deaths rise to 16 compared to 13 in the previous survey. This is stated in the new surveillance bulletin published today by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità.
Of the total 382 cases, 222 were neuroinvasive, i.e. with symptoms of meningitis or encephalitis, and the largest number, i.e. 131, occurred in Emilia-Romagna and 38 in Veneto; then 12 in Piedmont, 9 in Lombardy, 5 in Friuli Venezia Giulia, one in Lazio, 2 in Abruzzo, 11 in Campania, 2 in Puglia, 2 in Calabria, and one in Sardinia.
Of the 16 reported deaths, 3 occurred in Piedmont, one in Lombardy, 7 in Veneto, one in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 3 in Emilia-Romagna, one in Calabria. The first autochthonous human case of West Nile virus infection of the season was reported by Emilia-Romagna on June 26 in the province of Modena.
Two cases imported from the United States, 5 from Albania and one from Romania; 45 asymptomatic cases were identified among blood donors. West Nile fever, the ISS recalls on the online portal, is a disease caused by the West Nile virus, isolated for the first time in 1937 in Uganda, precisely in the West Nile district (from which it takes its name).
The reservoirs of the virus are wild birds and mosquitoes, whose bites are the main means of transmission to humans, while it is not transmitted through contact between people. In most cases the symptoms are absent or mild.
“The most serious symptoms occur in less than 1% of infected people (one in 150), and include high fever, severe headache, convulsions, and even paralysis and coma. Some neurological effects can be permanent” and in the most severe cases it can cause fatal encephalitis.
Article published on 20 September 2024 - 13:22
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