Italy on alert for the spread of West Nile virus

The disease is advancing and putting this European country on alert against a vaccine-deficient virus whose spread is difficult to avoid primarily by the bite of Culex mosquitoes, the report released on Wednesday adds.

The analysis, also published by the newspaper La Repubblica, indicates that 12 infected people are still in hospital, including three who were transferred to intensive care rooms, and an 84-year-old woman, who was admitted on July 16 in Venice, died two weeks ago. . distance.

About 20 percent of patients show sudden but mild flu-like symptoms, the source adds, and their incubation period ranges from two to 14 days, which is the period between infection of the pathogen and the appearance of the first symptoms.

These symptoms, which last an average of three to six days, include fever, chills, fatigue, malaise, headache, back pain, nausea, vomiting, and swollen lymph nodes.

The publication states that less than one percent of patients infected with West Nile virus have an acute course of the disease and usually develop encephalitis or meningitis.

According to the temporal trend of cases and deaths from this virus in Italy since 2017, the report adds, the data for 2022 still appears in line with those recorded in previous years and far from the highest point, in 2018, when 618 infections and 49 were reported. A death case.

jf / ort