West Nile in Attica: What to Do If You Are in Greece
Six deaths in Greece in just a few days, compared with nine for all of last year. The outbreak is centered in Attica, where thousands of Serbian tourists are currently vacationing.
Packing for Greece these days? Then repellent belongs in your bag right next to the sunscreen. This season, West Nile virus is circulating most heavily in the Attica region, which is exactly where you land and where you change trains or buses on the way to the islands.
Theodora Psaltopoulou, professor of epidemiology and preventive medicine at the Medical School in Athens, told ERT television that six deaths have been recorded in the past few days. For comparison, there were nine over the whole of last year. Most cases are in Attica, the fewest in Thessaly and Central Macedonia.
“Most cases are in the Attica area,” Psaltopoulou said, adding that infections have turned up in nearly every part of the region, north, south, east and west.
Would you even notice you were infected?
Most likely not. About eight in ten infected people show no visible signs of illness at all, and a smaller share develop mild symptoms: fever, headache, stomach trouble and rash. Spotting the infection is made harder by the fact that symptoms can appear several days after the bite, by which point most people have already forgotten being bitten.
The real concern is the small percentage of cases where the infection progresses further.
“In a small percentage of patients, the infection can develop into a serious illness, with high fever and severe headache, as well as confusion and disorientation, loss of consciousness, convulsions, paralysis,” Psaltopoulou said.
People over 60 are most at risk, along with anyone with chronic health conditions or a weakened immune system. If you are traveling with your parents or grandparents, protecting them comes first, not you.
The situation at home
Serbia’s seasonal surveillance has been running since June 1, and the transmission season ends in late September. The first two laboratory confirmed cases of the season were recorded on August 5, in two Belgrade residents aged 75 and 82, who were admitted to the Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Diseases in Belgrade with the neuroinvasive form of the disease. We reported on this when the city began fumigation at three in the morning.
The cases were confirmed by the National Reference Laboratory for Arbo Viruses and Hemorrhagic Fevers at the Torlak Institute and by the Belgrade City Institute for Public Health. Serbia’s Institute of Public Health, known as Batut, published an epidemiological update on August 10 with data through August 9, repeating its protection recommendations.
Five measures Batut recommends
- repellent on exposed skin whenever you are outdoors
- long sleeves and pants, loose fitting and in light colors, since mosquitoes can bite through tight clothing
- mosquito screens on windows, doors and around beds
- avoiding time outdoors when mosquitoes are most active, at dusk and dawn
- spending time in air conditioned spaces, where insect numbers are far lower
Translated into vacation terms: dinner in a taverna garden at nine in the evening falls exactly when mosquitoes are most active.
Five minutes a week in the yard
The virus is spread by Culex mosquitoes, which breed in standing water. Batut therefore advises emptying water at least once a week from flower pots, pet food and water bowls, buckets, barrels and cans. Discarded tires and any other objects that collect water should be removed.
Our advice: do it on the same day you take out the trash, so it becomes part of your routine.
If symptoms consistent with the neuroinvasive form of the disease appear, Batut advises contacting your doctor right away. Do not wait for it to pass on its own, and tell your doctor where and when you traveled, since a recent stay in Greece changes the entire course of the examination.
