Tropical virus is spreading in Germany - researchers are puzzled about new hotspots

Created: 05/12/2022, 04:51

By: Martina Lippl

West Nile virus circulates in Germany.

Some regions are particularly affected.

© CSP_Decade3D/imago

The West Nile virus has arrived in Germany.

people have become infected with the tropical disease.

Some regions appear to be particularly affected.

Berlin – There is neither a vaccine nor medication for human treatment against the West Nile virus (WNV for short).

The pathogen originally comes from Africa.

West Nile virus infection can be very dangerous for humans.

Blood-sucking mosquitoes transmit the tropical disease.

Although the virus comes from rather warmer areas, it has now also appeared in Germany.

The Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI) reports that the West Nile virus was first detected in 2018 in twelve birds and two horses.

The first cases of West Nile fever in humans became known in late summer 2019.

In the middle of the 2020 corona pandemic, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) recorded a further 22 mosquito-borne infections in Germany.

A year later, individual cases from East Germany were reported again.

West Nile Virus in Germany: These are the symptoms of the tropical disease

Most infections go undetected.

One in five develops a flu-like fever that lasts three to six days.

The symptoms include chills, headaches and back pain, exhaustion and swollen lymph nodes.

But according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), there are also severe courses.

Patients develop

 and, in rare cases ,

.

Where is the West Nile virus spreading in Germany?

In addition to Bavaria, the West Nile virus circulates in eastern Germany.

Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Brandenburg are affected.

That said Doreen Werner, biologist at the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (Zalf) in Müncheberg (Märkisch-Oderland), the dpa news agency.

"Why, we don't know yet."

Proven cases of West Nile virus infections in birds and horses (as of September 15, 2021).

© Friedrich Loeffler Institute

Risk: West Nile virus overwinters in mosquitoes

Apparently, the West Nile virus hibernates in mosquitoes and finds sufficiently favorable climatic conditions in summer, according to the RKI on West Nile fever.

The RKI writes: "It can be expected that WNV will continue to establish itself in Germany and that there will be a seasonal occurrence of WNV disease cases in the coming years, especially in the existing areas, but perhaps also in other areas."

"The warmer it gets, the better the pathogens can develop," explains biologist Werner.

The researcher has also observed that there is a circulation of viruses with a view to climate change.

“Climate change means that the pathogens can multiply better in the mosquitoes.

The central linchpin, however, is increasing globalization,” estimates Werner.