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Italy has confirmed two deaths and at least 32 cases of West Nile virus in 2025, amid an uptick in southern Europe this summer.
West Nile virus spreads mostly through the bites of infected mosquitoes, typically during the warmer summer months. Greece and Italy have also reported human cases this year.
Most of the Italian cases so far have been in the province of Latina, which is in the Lazio region about 100 kilometres south of Rome.
Italy’s national health institute (ISS) flagged the cases in its weekly report Thursday, noting that “the epidemiological trend is in line with that of previous years” while the geographical distribution of the virus “appears quite different”.
The virus, which causes high fever and rashes, has also been reported in Piedmont, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, and Campania. Among the confirmed cases there have so far been two deaths, one in Fondi and the other in the province of Novara.
“The West Nile virus has been endemic in our country for several years now,” said Anna Teresa Palamara, director of the ISS’s infectious diseases department, adding that measures are in place to protect against its spread.
“Let us remember that 80 per cent of West Nile infection cases are asymptomatic and the risk of serious consequences is greater for the most fragile people,” Palamara said.
The Lazio region confirmed 12 new cases of the virus on Thursday, following tests carried out by Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases, an infectious disease hospital in Rome.
According to the ISS, West Nile fever comes from the Flaviviridae family of viruses that were first isolated in 1937 in Uganda’s West Nile district.
The reservoirs of the virus are wild birds and mosquitoes, most frequently of the Culex type, whose bites are the main form of spread to people as there is no risk of person-to-person contagion.
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