At least 10 patients with West Nile virus in Veneto, Italy

Only one of the patients clbadified as severe, with a clinical picture that could evolve into encephalitis, according to local media that highlight the statements of the Regional Health Advisor, Luca Coletto, on the activation of the surveillance network, of Surveillance and Intervention

All cases with symptoms attributable to WNV, a disease transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Culex, are treated with special attention in the emergency rooms of hospitals, said Coletto, adding that in the slightest doubt, the tests and the necessary treatment is applied.

The citizens, he added, can make a decisive contribution to the prevention of mosquito proliferation by avoiding the abandonment of objects where rainwater is able to prevent the spread of mosquitoes. accumulate and hermetically cover the liquid storage containers.

On June 12, veneziatoday.it reported that, based on an existing regional plan since 2010, the integrated surveillance system of vector-borne diseases was detected the first positive of the virus in a trap. mosquitoes located in the municipality of Villa Bartolomea, Verona

A few days later, the positives were in the provinces of Treviso and Venice, and on June 26 the laboratory level was confirmed first case of 2018, in a person resident in Polesella, Rovigo province.

Epicenter, portal for epidemiology for public health, defines this disease as a virus of the family Flaviviridae isolated for the first time in 1937.

80% of patients are asymptomatic, while 20% remaining suffer from mild symptoms such as fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, inflammation of the skin. lymph nodes and rashes.

The site itself points out that the most severe symptoms occur in more than one percent of infested individuals – from 1 to 150 cases – and may have a high fever, severe head pain, muscle weakness, disorientation, tremors, visual disturbances, stupor, convulsions and even paralysis and coma.

In the most serious cases, about one in a thousand, the virus can cause lethal encephalitis

Against this evil there is no vaccine and the prevention up to now is limited to avoid the vector bite and its spread.

The World Health Organization defines it as a deadly disease of the nervous system, more common in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. , In North America and western Asia and is maintained by a transmission cycle when mosquitoes bite infested birds and then transmit the disease to humans and other mammals.

rgh / sm p