West Nile fever in Hungary: 16 infected last week

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), 16 people were infected in Hungary between August 10 and 16 which was the highest number in the EU – reported hvg.hu. The altogether number of cases is 41: Greece reported 15, Romania 8 while Croatia 2 cases. From the neighbouring states of the EU 24 cases were reported, all from Serbia.

39 new infections this year, but nobody died

According to the ECDC, nobody died because of the disease in Hungary. However, Greece and Serbia were not that lucky, the former reported one while the latter two deaths because of it. Moreover, one affected area in Croatia reported human cases for the first time.

Five cases were reported from Bács-Kiskun county in Hungary while 3 from Pest county and 2 from Budapest. The altogether number of cases reported from Hungary is

39 this year and fortunately, nobody died because of it hitherto.

For example, in Serbia, 11 people died in the fever while this number is 4 in Greece, 3 in Italy and 1 in Kosovo and Romania. Last year there were 23 infections reported from Hungary.

Mosquito bites have to be avoided

The Hungarian news agency reported about the fever on August 2 for the first time when an official from the Ministry of Human Capacities said that the virus’s occurrence is not multitudinous in Hungary. She then added that prevention is very important because

the virus is carried in by migratory birds and it is spread by mosquitoes.

Humans get infected if infectious mosquitoes bite them, but there is no direct human-to-human transmission. On those territories on which the virus is present; however, blood donations have to be hung. Furthermore, if somebody spends at least one night in a place where there was an outbreak, he or she must not donate blood for 28 days.

The ministry did not answer

To be frank, there is no specific therapy for the disease

only symptomatic treatment.

Furthermore, there is no vaccine yet; the experimental ones are still under development. Thus, mosquito bites have to be prevented. For example, territories on which they are breeding have to be reduced, and everybody should have a mosquito net. Moreover, since they attack at nightfall and dawn, everybody should wear long trousers during these times of the day.

The first symptoms appear in 3-14 days after the infection and are very similar to the symptoms of flu: fever, headache, weakness, joint and muscle pain, discomfort, inappetence, swollen lymph nodes and, eczema. In most cases, patients get well in 3-6 days; however, in some cases, cerebral inflammation and meningitis can occur

mostly among people above 60.

Symptoms are a headache, fever, wry neck, confusion, rigidity and, spasms. In these cases, the virus can cause death.

Attila Mesterházy, MP of the Socialists, asked the minister for human capacities how many infected people were registered in Hungary. Secretary of state Bence Rétvári answered that the National Public Health and Medical Officer Service publishes its report on epidemics every week so he should look for such information in them.

Source: hvg.hu