Director of the Institute for Public Health of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Siniša Skočibušić, stated that there are currently no reported cases of West Nile virus in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“The public may be calm, but that does not mean that we should not be prepared, among other things, for this disease, which has occasionally, sporadically, been present in Bosnia and Herzegovina in recent years. Given that 80 percent of the disease is asymptomatic and without major difficulties, our public can mostly be calm,” said Dr. Skočibušić.
According to him, only a small number of patients who become infected with this virus through a mosquito bite develop symptoms, the most severe of which is viral encephalitis.
“Our emergency services, as well as infectious disease clinics, recognize this disease well and can respond in time with treatment that is primarily symptomatic and supportive,” he pointed out.
What the citizens themselves can do, added Skočibušić, is to act preventively:
“Citizens can install protective nets on windows, where there are mosquitoes, they should empty containers in which water has accumulated, whether they are pots, barrels or discarded tires, and also use long sleeves in the evening, night and early morning hours, when mosquitoes are most active, and use mosquito repellants.”
The director of the Institute of Public Health of the FBiH called on the laboratories dealing with diagnostics to obtain a sufficient amount of reagents so that citizens could be diagnosed on time and so that they could better monitor the epidemiological situation in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
While there are currently no recorded cases in FBiH, the presence of the virus has been confirmed in the neighborhood.
The Croatian Institute of Public Health (HZJZ) has confirmed three cases of West Nile virus infection in eastern and central Croatia, of which one patient was hospitalized in intensive care due to severe complications.
Serbia has officially registered 11 cases of the virus since the start of the season. The first cases were confirmed in Belgrade at the beginning of August. 10 of the 11 registered patients developed a more severe, neuroinvasive form of the disease that requires hospital treatment.
