Holidaymakers heading to and Italy are being warned about a potentially deadly virus. The West Nile Virus has seen a small surge in cases in Europe. One individual has been infected in Seville, Spain, while another case has popped up in Modena, Italy.
The mosquito-borne can cause serious symptoms in one out of every five infected individuals, including fever, body aches, rashes, and vomiting. In extreme cases, patients may experience seizures, muscle weakness, and even paralysis. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has raised the alarm, confirming that these incidents were locally acquired rather than imported from tropical regions.
Moreover, the virus has been detected in mosquitoes within Italy's Chieti province. The Zika virus has also been found in mosquitoes across 26 European countries, including popular holiday hotspots Majorca and Menorca, where visitors are being warned about the striped Tiger Mosquitoes known to carry the disease. The ECDC has issued stark warnings about the escalating severity of mosquito-borne disease outbreaks across Europe, with dengue and chikungunya viruses also on the rise, reports .
Andrea Ammon, Director of the ECDC, remarked: "Europe is already seeing how climate change is creating more favourable conditions for invasive mosquitoes to spread into previously unaffected areas and infect more people with diseases such as dengue. Increased international travel from dengue-endemic countries will also increase the risk .
