Three people have been infected with the West Nile virus in Slovenia in what are the first cases of the disease in the country since 2018. The National Institute of Public Heath (NIJZ) said all three cases of the mosquito-transmitted disease were reported in the north-east of the country.

After NIJZ received reports of one West Nile virus infection in 2013 and 2017 each and five in 2018, no cases were reported for five seasons until now.

The latest infections were confirmed by the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology at the Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine, which informed NIJZ of them a few days ago.

None of the trio had travelled abroad and had been apparently infected in Slovenia, and they all needed hospital treatment, doctor Eva Grilc from NIJZ told the press on 2 September.

She said their condition was good. Two of them were admitted to UKC Maribor.

Head of the hospital's infection ward Božena Kotnik Kevorkijan told the Slovenian Press Agency that "one patient had milder symptoms and has already been discharged. The other has a slightly more severe disease, with certain complications, which are however not life-threatening."

Kotnik Kevorkijan stressed that the disease is not transmitted from human to human, and Grilc said the three infections were not related to one another.

Cases in all neighbouring countries this year

In Europe, the disease started occurring early this season with cases also reported in the neighbouring countries Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia.

While the regions in Austria and Croatia where the infections were confirmed are quite far from Slovenia, the Italian cases were confirmed much closer, in Friuli Venezia Giulia, according to the NIJZ.

Grilc said that most of the persons who fall ill with West Nile virus have symptoms somewhat similar to flu, which pass relatively quickly. But one in 150 persons develops a more severe form of disease where the central nervous system is affected.

The disease usually appears three to 14 days after getting infected, but most people do not fall ill as some 80% of infections pass without symptoms. Those above 50 and those with a compromised immune system are at greater risk of a severe course of the disease.

There is no vaccine to prevent the infection, and those who have not been infected yet are more susceptible to getting infected.

The best way to fight the risk of infection is measures to prevent mosquito bites, and NIJZ has had a plan for possible West Nile virus outbreaks since 2019.

Grilc said they would not decide on mosquito spraying for now, but if new cases emerged, NIJZ might decide on disinfection in cooperation with other institutions.