An 82-year-old woman living in Nerola (Rome) died at the San Giovanni di Dio hospital in
Funds (Latina) for West Nile virus.
The woman had been hospitalized on July 14th for fever and confusion. There are currently six other confirmed cases of West Nile virus infection in Lazio, all in the province of Latina.
Two are in critical condition due to comorbidities and are both hospitalized at the Santa Maria Goretti Hospital in Latina . The other four are improving clinically.
Meanwhile, given the outbreak in the province, the Lazio Region has issued measures, activated on July 17, to strengthen surveillance and monitoring activities for the proper management of any suspected cases.
Specifically, the recommendations for the Province of Latina include : raising awareness among physicians (especially family doctors, pediatricians, emergency department physicians, emergency rooms, and community physicians), local veterinarians, and providing clinical and laboratory support for patient management; targeted disinfestation interventions in Culex pipiens mosquito larvae (within a 200-meter radius of suspected viral circulation sites); informing citizens about the importance of mosquito bite prevention and collaboration to eliminate larval outbreaks; considering a diagnosis of West Nile in patients with new-onset fever without an obvious cause; conducting clinical examinations on equines, as well as conducting extraordinary serological surveillance on farms located near suspected or confirmed outbreaks. In an area such as that of the Province of Latina, Culex pipiens primarily uses medium-, small-, and very small-sized canals (irrigation channels, roadside drainage ditches, etc.) as larval breeding grounds.
Municipalities have already begun additional environmental cleanup activities . Furthermore, all physicians in the Region, and particularly in the province of Latina, are advised to pay maximum attention to the diagnosis of invasive neurological cases of West Nile virus, with prompt neurological evaluation of prolonged fever in people at risk of severe disease. They should also include West Nile virus infection in the differential diagnosis of encephalitis, meningitis with clear cerebrospinal fluid, polyradiculoneuritis (Guillain-Barré-like), and acute flaccid paralysis.
