West Nile virus in Europe in 2021 - infections among humans and outbreaks among equids and/or birds, updated 2 September 2021

Between 27 August and 2 September 2021, European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) countries reported 22 human cases of West Nile virus (WNV) infection and 3 deaths related to WNV infections. Cases were reported by Greece (10), Italy (6), Spain (3), Austria (1), Hungary (1) and Romania (1). Deaths were reported by Greece (1), Spain (1) and Romania (1). EU-neighbouring countries reported 3 human cases of WNV infection in Serbia (3) and no deaths related to WNV infections.

Since the beginning of the 2021 transmission season and as of 2 September 2021, EU/EEA countries have reported 72 human cases of WNV infection in Greece (35), Italy (24), Romania (4), Austria (3), Spain (3) and Hungary (3) and 5 deaths in Greece (3), Spain (1) and Romania (1). EU-neighbouring countries have reported 9 human cases of WNV infection in Serbia (9) and 2 deaths in Serbia (2).

Due to technical issues seven cases of WNV infections reported by Italy during the previous week were not included in last week’s weekly update but are now included in this week’s total numbers. All of these occurred in places that had already reported WNV infections during the current season.

During the current transmission season, within the reporting countries, human cases of WNV infection were reported from 29 different NUTS 3 or GAUL 1 regions, of which the following regions reported human cases of WNV infection for the first time: La Spezia in Italy.

Since the beginning of the 2021 transmission season, 7 outbreaks among equids and no outbreaks among birds have been reported by EU/EEA countries. Outbreaks among equids have been reported by Spain (5) and Germany (2).