Deadly West Nile virus spreads across Europe with doctors issuing urgent warning

Deadly West Nile virus spreads across Europe with doctors issuing urgent warning Experts have issued a warning after West Nile virus, which could be deadly in some places, has been recorded in more places in Europe The potentially deadly mosquito-borne West Nile virus has spread across more of Europe, as experts issue a warning on the concerning rise. Italian health authorities said they have seen evidence that rising temperatures and longer warm seasons have helped mosquitoes spread the disease across a wider area, during more months of the year. More than 650 infections have been reported in Italy so far this year, according to local health authorities. This virus is spread mostly through the bites of infected mosquitoes and can cause symptoms like a fever, headache and muscle aches. However, around 1 in 150 cases develop serious disease affecting the brain and nervous system, according to the NHS. This is around half of all the cases of this virus recorded across Europe this year. Antonino Bella, researcher at Italy's National Institute of Health shared a warning on how the changing climate could lead to a greater spread of the virus. Bella said: "Higher temperatures linked to climate change help mosquitoes reproduce and extend the transmission season, increasing the chances that infected mosquitoes will spread the virus to people." West Nile has been considered endemic in Italy since 2020, when cases started to surge, and is now reported every summer and early fall. About 80% of infected people develop no symptoms. Experts say this year's case numbers are broadly in line with recent seasons. However, warmer temperatures favour mosquito reproduction and can mean the transmission season sometimes lasts as late as November, Bella explained. Areas once mostly unaffected by West Nile virus are increasingly reporting infections. The Netherlands this year has reported more than two dozen West Nile cases, the first since 2020, as well as several deaths, according to its public health institute. A Belgian research team travelled to study Italy's research and surveillance system, last May, after the country began recording locally acquired West Nile cases. Marc-Alain Widdowson, who leads the Pandemic Threats, Communicable Diseases, and AMR Division at the World Health Organization's Europe office said: "There's no doubt that warming weather will expand the period of replication for the virus and the vector in more countries." He added: "You've got to be careful not to say that climate change is all of it, but certainly a warming climate means that we have a longer mosquito season, so that the vectors can survive for longer. Warm temperatures also mean that the virus itself will survive better." Experts shared that Italy's extensive monitoring network, which tracks mosquitoes, birds, blood donors and human infections, also helps explain why the country detects so many cases. In June, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control warned that the changing weather in Europe - with heat waves and more flooding - were more favourable for invasive mosquito species. West Nile Virus was first identified in Uganda in 1937. It is now endemic in parts of Europe, the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.