A case of West Nile Encephalitis has been recorded in an adult in the area of Karditsa, Greece. Local authorities are acting immediately to launch prevention and control programs to minimize the spread of the disease. The Hellenic Centers for Disease Control confirmed the disease to be an epidemic with 257 cases infections confirmed last year, most of them in Central Macedonia and Thessalia, of which 191 were severe encephalitis.
The president of the Hellenic Centers of Disease Control, TzenI Kremastinou, stated that the West Nile Virus still exists after 10 years in the USA, spreading now as a type of seasonal epidemic that flares up during the summer period and continues into the fall, and that more human cases are expected to be reported this summer in Greece. Cases have already been recorded during the present summer period in other European Countries.
For the prevention and control of the West Nile Virus threat in Greece this year, a national network for epidemiological observation has been applied in the country that continuously conducts risk assessment, and sets on alarm the authorities for possible emerging risks. Focusing especially in Central Macedonia, the measures for prevention and control that are so far activated by the Hellenic Centers for Disease Control include detecting bird carriers’ index, thriving mosquitoes’ collection on 100 spots around Greece, along with human infection cases recording.
Official reports announced from the Hellenic Centers for Disease Control to the Greek Reporter/ News up to the weekend 23/24 July referred to only 6 infections on pigeons and no human infection. On Monday, the Hellenic CDC announced the first human case of the summer period 2011, clinically characterized as mild encephalitis.
The Hellenic Centers for Disease Control and Prevention remind the public that systematic personal precautions will reduce chances of infection, and emphasize measures that need to be taken on a local level, such as spraying methods and the elimination of stagnant water.
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