Skopje: 76-Year-Old Suspected of Having West Nile Fever Admitted to Infectious Diseases Clinic

Over the past 24 hours, another patient, aged 76, has been hospitalized at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases. He has been diagnosed with viral meningitis, while serological tests of his serum came back positive for West Nile virus. This brings the total number of patients to seven, while 10 people have been confirmed as having West Nile Fever. Three of them are in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit and on mechanical ventilation. So far, their condition has shown no improvement. All the patients are from Skopje.

The information was announced today by the clinic’s director, Fadil Cana. He explained that further tests on cerebrospinal fluid are needed to confirm the neuroinvasive form of the disease in the seventh suspected case.

Cana stressed that PCR technology is not considered the gold standard for diagnosing the neuroinvasive form of West Nile Fever. For this reason, these patients undergo other laboratory tests and are treated as West Nile Fever patients.

“The disease’s incubation period can last up to 14 days. It is not possible to predict in advance how the disease will develop in each person’s body. Data available so far show that older people are at greater risk of developing severe forms of the disease. All patients hospitalized in our country are over 60 years old and also have underlying health conditions.

A more severe clinical presentation may occur more frequently among older people, those with chronic illnesses and people with compromised, or weakened, immune systems. In around 80 percent of those infected, the disease is mild or causes no symptoms at all,” Cana added./Telegrafi/