West Nile Fever Outbreak in Horses and Humans, Spain, 2010

The West Nile Virus-Like Flavivirus Koutango Is Highly Virulent in Mice due to Delayed Viral Clearance and the Induction of a Poor Neutralizing Antibody Response

“…With the increasing global activity of West Nile virus, including the emergence of lineage II strains, causing widespread disease across Europe (8,9), and the emergence of the first virulent strain of WNV to cause an outbreak in Australia (4), there is a growing need to better understand the ability of different WNV strains to cause disease. This knowledge will lay the foundation for more effective therapeutics or vaccine candidates.…”

“…However, in recent times strains of WNV have caused large outbreaks of encephalitis in the New World, involving humans and equines in the United States and equines in Australia (2-10). There have also been recent incursions of new, virulent strains in Europe (8)(9)(10). In the summer of 2012, the United States saw the second highest number of WNV cases on record with concurrent outbreaks in several European countries, highlighting the continuing public health threat of WNV to humans (11).…”

Outbreak of West Nile virus infection among humans in Serbia, August to October 2012

“…The first cases were reported in Israel (in the World Health Organization European Region) in the 1950s, followed by France in 1962-63 [2]. The first large outbreak in humans in Europe was in Romania, in 1996-97, and subsequent outbreaks were also reported in Russia in 1999 and Spain in 2004 [3][4][5]. Recently, ecological conditions were favourable for the spread of WNV in the Mediterranean, central and south-east Europe, causing outbreaks in countries neighbouring Serbia: Italy in 2008-10, Hungary in 2008, Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in 2011 [6][7][8][9].…”

Low Seroprevalence of West Nile Virus in Blood Donors from Catalonia, Spain

“…Since then, a number of human outbreaks have been described in European countries over the last two decades (Zeller et al 2004 (Kaptoul et al 2007). In 2010, the first outbreak of WNV was reported in Southern Spain, affecting more than 50 horses and 2 humans with WNV neurologic disease (Garcia-Bocanegra et al 2011). In Catalonia, (Northeastern Spain) three main wetlands that serve as breeding sites for wild birds as well as mosquito vectors are present (Ebro river delta, Lobregat river delta and the and the Empordà wetlands).…”