Skopje Declares Epidemic After First West Nile Death
An 83-year-old man from Skopje has died of West Nile fever, North Macedonia's first such death. Five patients are on ventilators, with an epidemic declared in parts of five Skopje municipalities.
The first death from West Nile fever since North Macedonia began tracking the disease has been confirmed in Skopje, a city that sits on the highway route Serbian drivers take toward Greece every summer. For readers in Serbia, this is the same story that unfolded in Attica when the virus struck Greece, only much closer to home: the same carrier, the same season, and a neighboring country instead of a southern holiday destination.
The victim was an 83-year-old man from Skopje, treated at the city’s Clinic for Infectious Diseases and Febrile Conditions. According to the Institute for Public Health of North Macedonia, his symptoms began on August 2: high fever, chills, headache, general weakness, joint and muscle pain, a stiff neck and altered consciousness. He was diagnosed with meningitis, and the presence of the virus was confirmed through a serological test of his cerebrospinal fluid.
Fadil Cana, director of the University Clinic for Infectious Diseases, said at a press conference that the deceased had tested positive for the neuroinvasive form of the disease, the type that affects the central nervous system, and that the patient also suffered from several underlying conditions.
“The patient also had many underlying illnesses,” Cana said.
The Skopje clinic is the only facility in the country that admits these patients, so the full weight of the season falls on a single institution.
Five patients on mechanical ventilation
Five more patients infected with the virus are in critical condition, in intensive care and on mechanical ventilation. Three people whose illness has affected the central nervous system are being treated at home. The clinic has hospitalized a total of 29 patients this year with suspected neuroinvasive disease, of whom 25 cases have been confirmed by laboratory testing, and eight patients have recovered.
“The clinic has so far handled these cases successfully, which means it has the capacity to diagnose and treat all of these patients,” Cana said at a joint press conference with the deputy health minister and representatives of the Institute for Public Health of North Macedonia and the Public Health Center Skopje.
According to the Ministry of Health of North Macedonia, 26 cases of West Nile fever have been registered in the country since May 15, 25 of them in Skopje and one in Veles. Most of those infected are older than 60, which health authorities cite as evidence of higher risk among older people. The man who died and the five patients on ventilators fit that pattern.
Which municipalities are under the epidemic
The Public Health Center Skopje has declared an epidemic in parts of five municipalities: Kisela Voda, Gazi Baba, Aerodrom, Butel and Ilinden, as well as in the settlements of Dracevo, Przino, Donje Lisice, Kadino and Jurumleri. Authorities cited more efficient monitoring and enforcement of preventive measures on the ground as the reason for the move.
The area covers the southern and eastern part of the Skopje valley, meaning settlements along waterways and low-lying parts of the city, where Culex mosquitoes breed most easily. These same municipalities also account for the largest share of Skopje’s total reported cases nationwide.
Greece and the region in the same season
In the same period, nine people have died of West Nile fever in Greece, out of 110 confirmed cases overall. The comparison shows that North Macedonia’s numbers are not an outlier but part of the same Balkan season, in which the virus is spreading along the same river valleys and through the same carrier.
For Serbia, the significance is twofold. Skopje is a transit point on the route to Greek resorts, and the border with North Macedonia remains open to daily traffic. Health authorities in Skopje have announced stepped up monitoring in the area under the epidemic, and the next update will depend on how many new patients the clinic reports in the coming weeks.
