EU up to 106 human cases of West Nile fever

West Nile fever is currently peaking in the European Union with 28 new cases reported over the last week, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said on Friday.

The fever-causing virus is also spreading to newly affected areas, including four newly affected provinces in Italy and two newly affected counties in Romania. West Nile fever spread to the Italian provinces of Verona, Reggio nell-Emilia, Mantova and Bologna. The newly affected Romanian counties included Tulcea and Constanta.

A case detected in Austria was withdrawn when additional laboratory tests found no West Nile virus infection.

There were 33 new cases of West Nile fever in the last week in neighboring countries to the EU.

As of Thursday, there were 106 human cases of West Nile fever reported in the EU with 289 cases of West Nile fever in neighboring countries since the start of the 2013 transmission season.

The number of new cases of West Nile fever topped last week’s report, which reported 26 new cases in the EU in the week ending August 29.

West Nile fever is a disease caused by the mosquito-borne West Nile virus. EU blood safety legislation requires that accurate information is gathered about areas affected by the virus in a timely manner.