A 12-year-old boy was bitten by a mosquito six months ago; his legs later became paralysed, and he still attends physiotherapy today. It is a major achievement that he can now run again. The culprit is exotic West Nile fever, an exotic disease first identified in Uganda in 1937. The good news is that the vast majority of those infected show no symptoms at all. Yet in rare cases, it can lead to extremely severe illness, as the above example starkly illustrates. The elderly and those with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk. But how can we protect ourselves?
Exotic disease rarely causes extremely severe complications
The case highlighted by Blikk is, sadly, not unique. The mosquito bite suffered by 12-year-old Béla five years ago seemed utterly routine at the time, and no one paid it much heed. Trouble began later, however. The boy’s legs became completely paralysed after the infection triggered West Nile fever-induced spinal cord inflammation. The past months have been filled with therapy and physiotherapy; he can now walk—and even run—but he still requires leg braces.
Béla’s case is rare, but not isolated. Some 80% of patients endure West Nile fever without any symptoms whatsoever. Of the remaining 20%, severe signs may emerge, such as fever, headaches, joint pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, and rashes. Some fare even worse, for reasons doctors cannot fully explain. In very rare instances, the virus of the exotic disease can provoke encephalitis, meningitis, or myelitis, bringing high fever, seizures, paralysis, or even coma. The greatest dangers fall to the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.
You cannot avoid it in Hungary
Though the illness sounds exotic, it has in fact been endemic in Hungary since the 1970s, with the first clinical cases recorded in 2003. Decades ago, our regular “illegal” migrants—the migratory birds—brought it here. It is not the tiger mosquito, now establishing itself in Hungary amid warming climes, but the common songbird mosquito native to our shores that spreads it. The rising incidence stems from warmer springs and summers, which favour booming mosquito populations. Documented cases in recent years number only a few dozen, but that figure is expected to climb.
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This is a viral infection, so no specific drug therapy exists; hospital treatment is required for severe symptoms. Protection comes from eliminating standing water, where mosquitoes breed rapidly in warm, humid conditions. This is an individual responsibility, though local councils could do much to help through targeted programmes.
Avoiding foreign travel, then, offers little defence against infection. Fortunately, the virus spreads only via mosquito bites; it does not pass from human to human, save in cases of organ transplant or blood transfusion.
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