Five people have died this year in Italy from the West Nile virus. Specifically, in the Campania region, with Naples as its capital, an elderly 80-year-old man with serious underlying health conditions died yesterday. It was also recently announced that at the end of last week, a 74-year-old man who suffered from kidney failure and had been infected with the virus lost his life in a Naples hospital.
Read: West Nile virus: Concern over increased cases – What are the complications
Last week, three other people died due to complications caused by the virus in the wider Latina area (located 78 kilometers south of Rome) and in the city of Novara, near Turin.
West Nile virus: What symptoms does it present
Italian doctors emphasize that in the majority of cases, those infected with the virus (which is transmitted by mosquitoes) remain asymptomatic or overcome flu-like symptoms within a few days without needing hospitalization. However, in elderly people with underlying diseases and weakened immune systems, there is a greater likelihood of developing more serious problems, starting with severe complications in the neurological system.
Compared to last year, the total number of cases so far does not show an increase. What has changed is the recording of the highest percentage of cases (28 so far) in the Latina region, where there are large plains with agricultural land and, until a century ago, malaria was particularly widespread.
