There have been 71 fresh West Nile
Fever cases, and two more deaths from the virus in Italy in the
last seven days, the Higher Health Institute (ISS) said in a
weekly report updated to August 23 Thursday.
There have now been 301 cases in the country, and 15 deaths,
since the beginning of June, the report said.
Infections from the Usutu virus remain stead at three.
Of the 301 cases, 160 have been of the neuro-invasive form (85
in Veneto, 37 in Emilia-Romagna, 19 in Piedmont, 8 in Lombardy,
7 in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 3 in Tuscany, and 1 in Sardinia).
Some 45 cases have been found in blood donors (23 in Veneto, 11
in Emilia-Romagna, 6 in Lombardy, and 5 in Piedmont).
Some 186 mosquito pools have been identified, 15 hotbeds in
equine species and 142 infected birds.
No bird farms have been affected, the report said.
Ten West Nile Fever patients have been moved to the ICU in a
Padua hospital amid a concerning rise in the mosquito-borne
disease in Veneto, medical sources said earlier this week.
There are now 15 people with the fever in the Padua hospital in
all.
The hospital said some of those in the ICU were relatively
young, at around 50-60 years of age.
"The rest are elderly, hard hit by this virus, which seems
particularly aggressive this year", said the director-general of
the Azienda Ospedale Università Padova, Giuseppe Dal Ben.
Meanwhile a third case was reported in Tuscany, a 16-year-old
boy.
West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes
West Nile fever.
It is a member of the family Flaviviridae, from the genus
Flavivirus, which also contains the Zika virus, dengue virus,
and yellow fever virus.
The virus is primarily transmitted by mosquitoes, mostly species
of Culex.
The primary hosts of WNV are birds, so that the virus remains
within a "bird-mosquito-bird" transmission cycle.
The virus is genetically related to the Japanese encephalitis
family of viruses.
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