The Slovenian National Institute of Public Health announced that the first three cases of West Nile virus infection this year were confirmed in that country, and that all three cases of infection were confirmed in the northeastern part of Slovenia, in Pomurje and Podravlje.
Two people infected with the West Nile virus were admitted to the Department of Infectious Diseases and Febrile Conditions of the Maribor Clinical Center.
“One person had a mild course of the disease and has already been discharged, and the other person has certain complications, but is not life-threatening,” said department head Bozena Kotnik Kevorkijan on Monday, reports STA.
In this year, cases of infection were recorded in the region, namely in Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo and some EU countries, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Spain, France, Bulgaria, Germany and Romania.
The virus was discovered in 1937 in northwestern Uganda, and most people do not get sick after being bitten by an infected mosquito because in approximately 80 percent of cases the infection passes without symptoms.
West Nile virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, occurs most often in the warmer months, when mosquitoes are most active. Very rarely, the virus is transmitted between people through transfusions, tissues or donated organs.
