The West Nile fever are suffering together in this year, more Europeans than in the last five years. 90 people have died so far. In Germany, too, has been infected now for the first time, a human to a bird, the West Nile Virus killed.
The mosquito-transmitted West Nile Virus has been years in the South and South – East Europe. In the summer of 2018, it has continued to make his way to the North, and at the same time, in some areas, an epidemic is triggered.
Alone in the last week of September, the European epidemic authority ECDC reported 80 newly reported cases: 30 in Serbia, 22 in Greece, 19 in Romania, 7 in Hungary, and one case from Bulgaria and the Czech Republic. 18 of the Infected died.
With over 1300 cases in the EU and more than 400 cases, in neighboring States, five times as many people are alone in 2018 together ill as in the last five years. A total of 90 people died. The West Nile fever has become a deadly epidemic.
First, contagion in Germany
Also, Germany has been the first case in which the infection is not a holiday souvenir from a southern country. According to the Institute for Microbiology of the Bundeswehr in Munich, is a 31-year-old veterinarian from Bavaria. Previously, the West Nile Virus was discovered in dead birds in the South and East of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The veterinary practitioner was the contact with an infected bird’s undoing. He had studied a great grey owl from the wildlife Park Poing, had died of the West Nile Virus. The vet had get the fever and easily thanks felt.
The connection of its symptoms with the bird-autopsy he had suspected only in retrospect, and an investigation initiated. In fact, antibodies which confirmed an infection with the West Nile Virus were found in his blood. He was not ill especially hard, and now he’s completely well, says Sabine pliers, Director of the Institute for Microbiology of the German armed forces. The analysis was carried out.
Not everyone Infected will get sick too
Infection does not necessarily lead to a disease. In 80 percent of the Infected show no symptoms at all. At 20 percent it comes to flu-like complaints with a, sometimes with high fever and a slight rash. After three to six days, the symptoms subside, in some cases, the West Nile fever can last up to twelve days. In the case of serious disease, it comes not only to a high fever, but often to inflammation in the brain (encephalitis). The disease often ends fatally.
Infected at a dead bird
The scientists who have detected the infection, suspect that the man has an open wound, or by contact of the virus with the mucous membranes. He was not in any case, ill directly through a mosquito bite.
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For experts, the case is nevertheless a proof that a originally tropical pathogens from spreading further to the North, once the environmental conditions are suitable. In spring and summer 2018, the warm weather is not the beneficiary of the multiplication of vector mosquitoes, there is also the virulence of the virus increased.
With the falling temperatures, the risk of infection through mosquito bites in Germany drastically. Whether the West-Nile-Virus in Germany permanently, you can therefore at the earliest in the next summer to determine if mosquitoes are on the move.
No vaccine against the West Nile Virus
In regions of Europe where it is also in the autumn, still warm, advises the world health organization mosquito spray and long clothing. Further preventive measures against the West Nile Virus, such as vaccination, does not exist.