Viruses, Vol. 12, Pages 720: West Nile Virus in Slovenia

Viruses, Vol. 12, Pages 720: West Nile Virus in Slovenia Viruses doi: 10.3390/v12070720 Authors: Nataša Knap Miša Korva Vladimir Ivović Katja Kalan Mateja Jelovšek Martin Sagadin Samo Zakotnik Katja Strašek Smrdel Jan Slunečko Tatjana Avšič-Županc West Nile virus (WNV) is a flavivirus transmitted by mosquitoes. Birds are the reservoir for the virus; humans, horses and other mammals are dead-end hosts. Infections caused by WNV in humans can vary from asymptomatic infections to West Nile fever (WNF) or West Nile neuroinvasive disease (WNND). In 1995, a serosurvey was performed in Slovenia on forest workers, and WNV specific IgG antibodies were confirmed in 6.8% of the screened samples, indicating that WNV is circulating in Slovenia. No human disease cases were detected in Slovenia until 2013, when the first case of WNV infection was confirmed in a retrospective study in a 79-year old man with meningitis. In 2018, three patients with WNND were confirmed by laboratory tests, with detection of IgM antibodies in the cerebrospinal fluid of the patients. In one of the patients, WNV RNA was detected in the urine sample. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, a mosquito study was performed in Slovenia. Mosquitoes were sampled on 14 control locations and 35 additional locations in 2019. No WNV was detected in mosquitoes in 2017 and 2019, but we confirmed the virus in a pool of Culex sp. mosquitoes in 2018. The virus was successfully isolated, and complete genome sequ...
Source: Viruses - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research