According to a first case, a few weeks ago, a West Nile Virus infection has been detected in two additional patients in Germany. Two in the late summer, focusing on women in Berlin and Wittenberg (Saxony-Anhalt), are affected Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit from the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for tropical medicine (medical establishment has treated you) in Hamburg said. In the vicinity of the first Infected from the Region of Leipzig there were also other suspected cases, including in younger patients.
At the end of September, the medical establishment has treated you and other banks had announced that for the first time in Germany the Transmission of the West Nile Virus by mosquitoes on a human was confirmed. The 70-Year-old from the Leipzig region was ill in mid-August of a brain inflammation, he is now recovered.
Previously, the causative agent in Germany had not been detected, had – apart from a case in which a veterinarian in Bavaria infected in the investigation of a bird, only in rare cases in travelers.
“Far more people in Germany than previously thought”
The wide range of serious disease is frightening, said Schmidt-Chanasit. Only about one percent of infections lead to severe diseases in which the nervous system is affected. Therefore, it must be assumed that hundreds more people have been infected, without the disease has been detected, the expert. “The West Nile Virus seems to include far more people in Germany than previously assumed.”
The pathogen, native to Africa, but has achieved with the help of migratory birds already, several southern European countries. In Germany, it can be through domestic mosquitoes of the genus Culex transmit.
The infection in about 80 percent of the Infected without any complaints. About 20 percent show mild disease symptoms such as fever, skin rash and flu-like symptoms, this is then referred to as West Nile fever. Less than one percent of all the victims – usually in older people with pre-existing conditions – an inflammation of the brain (Meningitis) or, less frequently, inflammation of the brain (encephalitis), which can be fatal skin.
For the first time Zika diseases in Europe
Also other tropical pathogens from spreading in the direction of the North. This summer, for the first time demonstrated in Europe, Zika transmission by mosquitoes, such as the European Centre for Disease Prevention told Control. The two affected persons from the South of France, the Département of Var were developed in August, typical symptoms, although neither you nor your sex-travelled partner in a Zika areas. Tests confirmed the infections, both are doing well again.
Zika is transmitted, among other things, the Asian tiger mosquito, which has spread in recent years in southern Europe (read more here). In most cases, the infection is unremarkable, to include the possible complaints of fever, headache, and skin redness. Women are infected at an early stage of the pregnancy, can their children, however, brain and Skull malformations develop. In the case of a Zika epidemic in Brazil, thousands of infants with malformations were born.
In Germany, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) estimates the risk of Infection for Zika to be very low. So it comes to that, would have to meet several very improbable conditions together, says Klaus Stark, an expert in tropical infections:
“An infected traveler who has the Virus anyway, just a few days in the blood, would have to meet after his return to Germany on a Asian tiger mosquito”, is so Strong. This Species is not, however, apart from some regions of southern Germany – here. “Other mosquito species in Germany can not be a Carrier.” In addition, it must be for a Transmission to be relatively hot. “Mostly it is about the temperatures that are achieved in us, even in the summer, more rarely, in the South of France, but.”
The French authorities reported on Wednesday from seven to Dengue infections, it since 1. August had been in the southern French Département of Alpes-Martimes. In the administrative district of Rhône, two further cases had been reported. The Dengue fever has spread in the past decades dramatically throughout the world, some of them did, in addition to France, also infections in other European countries.