West Nile fever maps, 6 September 2012: 21 new cases in the EU and 87 in neighbouring countriesArchived

Twenty one new human cases of West Nile fever have been reported for the EU and 83 for its neighbourhood over the past week.

Twelve new cases were reported in Greece by the Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO). Only one probable cases comes from a newly affected prefecture of Lefkada. Eleven cases were found in areas with previous case reports: in the prefectures of Attiki (1), Kavala (4), Thessaloniki (1), Xanthi (5) (See the KEELPNO Weekly bulletin for more information). New cases and affected areas in Greece are not unexpected given that since 2010 there has been progressive geographical expansion of West Nile virus transmission throughout the country, as stated in the recently published ECDC risk assessment on the epidemiological situation of West Nile fever in Greece.

For the first time this year cases of West Nile fever have been reported in Hungary: two confirmed cases in Csongrád and Hajdú-Bihar counties.

Romania reported four new confirmed cases (one from the newly affected counties of Iasi and three from areas with previous case reports) and Italy - three new confirmed cases (one from the newly affected province of Treviso and two from a province with previous case reports).

In neighbouring countries, 76 new cases have been found in Russia and 11 new cases - in Serbia.

Every Friday ECDC publishes on its website the West Nile fever maps, the information being based on cases reported up to the Thursday of each week.