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At this time of year, forest fires and strikes are usually the main concern of tourists visiting Greece. But as the country prepares for a record season, authorities have also warned: beware of mosquitoes.
A week after the Foreign Office made the decision to include insects among the potential dangers of a trip to Greece, health officials urge holidaymakers to take precautions against West Nile virus after the unprecedented outbreak of the disease transmitted by a mosquito last year.
"There have been enough cases to know that it was now a public health problem," said Danai Pervanidou, who heads the agency's vector-borne diseases office. National Public Health Organization (Keelpno). "The virus is established in Greece through migratory birds and we recommend everyone to take individual protection measures, such as wearing long sleeves, avoiding places where the Water stagnates and the use of mosquito nets and insect repellent. "
A record number of 316 people were infected with the virus last year, resulting in the deaths of 50 Greeks. According to Keelpno, during a transmission season that began unusually early, laboratory-diagnosed cases were reported in rural and urban areas.
Normally, people infected with the virus have no symptoms. According to about 20% of the United States, about 1% of them will develop a serious illness, while nearly 20% of them suffer from benign illnesses resembling the flu, including fever, sore throats. of head and general ills.
But among the cases diagnosed in Greece last year, 243 had symptoms of neuro-invasive diseases such as encephalitis, meningitis and acute paralysis.
Since 2012, when there had been 262 cases and 35 deaths, the outbreak had been so severe.
Faced with growing concern of the authorities, the US Embbady in Athens issued a health alert inviting citizens to take preventive measures, ranging from cleaning mosquito breeding areas to cutting of grbad and shrubs.
As the country prepares to receive 31 million visitors, nearly three times its population, this year, stringent measures are being taken to control outbreaks of infection.
Outreach programs for health professionals have been strengthened with the distribution of information brochures to airports as well as to municipal and regional authorities nationwide.
"It is impossible to predict the circulation area of the virus because of the complexity of its epidemiology, but we know that it left rural villages and wetlands to settle in major centers. urban areas, including in the Attica region. [around Athens] and Thessaloniki, "Pervanidou told The Guardian. "Just like in winter, when we expect an influenza epidemic, we now have to expect cases of West Nile fever. We must be prepared. "
The wild bird species serve as reservoirs for the virus, mosquitoes transmitting it after they have been fed their infected blood. Horses are as vulnerable as humans to infections.
Greece is not the only one to have reported an increase in cases of West Nile virus. Italy, Cyprus, Romania and Serbia also experienced an increase. Infection rates in 2018 alone exceeded the total number reported in the last seven years.
"The last case of [2018’s] France has reported the end of the transmission season in the European Union at the end of November … an unusually late date, "wrote the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, suggesting that Exposure to West Nile virus would also lengthen.
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