Positivity is being confirmed in the province of Crotone due to West Nile Virus infection. This is what is shown by the latest bulletin of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Iss) according to which “the number of human cases of West Nile Virus infection continues to grow in the last week of surveillance”.
Since the beginning of June 2022, according to the ISS bulletin, 475 confirmed cases of human infection have been reported in Italy (440 in the latest bulletin) “; of these 234 manifested in the neuroinvasive form. Among the confirmed cases , 25 deaths were reported. The Istituto Superiore di Sanità specifies: “Reducing exposure to mosquito bites is currently the only tool to prevent contagion”.
The first human case of the season was reported by Veneto in June in the province of Padua. According to the bulletin, based on data updated up to 13 September, this is the geographical distribution of the 234 cases that occurred in the neuroinvasive form: 28 in Piedmont, 23 Lombardy, 112 Veneto, 4 FriuliVenezia Giulia, 59 Emilia-Romagna, 3 Tuscany , 1 in Sicily, 4 in Sardinia. Among the 25 deaths, 5 occurred in Piedmont, 4 Lombardy, 13 Veneto, 1 Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 2 Emilia-Romagna.
Veterinary surveillance carried out on horses, mosquitoes, sedentary and wild birds, confirmed the circulation of the West Nile virus in Piedmont, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Sardinia. Positivity is being confirmed in the province of Crotone.
Most of the infected people, recalls the ISS on the Epicenter portal, “do not show any symptoms. Among the symptomatic cases, about 20% have mild symptoms”. But in the elderly and in debilitated people “the symptoms can be more severe”. The most severe symptoms occur in less than 1% of infected people (1 in 150 people), and “include high fever, severe headaches, muscle weakness, disorientation, tremors, visual disturbances, numbness, convulsions, up to paralysis and coma. Finally, in one case out of a thousand, the virus can cause lethal encephalitis “.