Heads Up: West Nile Virus on the Rise in Germany
🕵️♀️ After a woman in Saxony shows signs of the West Nile Virus (WNV), Germany's health authorities are on high alert. This year marks the first reported case in the country, with three more detected later, all linked to travel and involving women.
🦟 Experts at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) in Hamburg confirmed the local transmission of the virus through a blood donation sample analysis.
🚨 With the virus becoming more prevalent, Schmidt-Chanasit from BNITM warns of further infections. The Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) has recorded 18 cases in birds and 14 in horses as of August 23rd. The hardest-hit states are Berlin, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony.
🤐 It's important to note that a commonly used testing method can also respond to the Usutu virus, causing a significant die-off of starlings in Germany. Although people can be infected with it, severe cases are rare.
🕒 The delay in detecting WNV cases is due to the importance of accurately distinguishing it from the Usutu virus through laborious sequence analyses. This means there might be undetected infections, as the tests take several weeks.
🔥 In most cases, WNV infections have no symptoms. However, severe and potentially fatal instances occur primarily in older individuals with pre-existing conditions, accounting for about 1% of all infections.
🌆 A significant increase in human cases is possible if WNV starts spreading in the densely populated Rhine-Main area, according to Schmidt-Chanasit. Currently, mosquitoes in this area are safe, but climatic conditions could lead to an outbreak.
📉 Last year, Germany reported 7 cases of local WNV transmission, with 17 cases the previous year. As climate change favors the virus, experts predict an increase in cases in the near future, similar to the outbreaks in South and Southeast Europe.
🦺 WNV originated in Africa and first appeared in Europe in the early 1960s. The first bird infected with the virus was found in Germany in August 2018, and human cases linked to local mosquitoes were reported for the first time in 2019.
🌟 For additional insights on the spread and impact of WNV, check out the following articles:
