Native mosquitoes transmit West Nile virus Photo: stock.adobe.com
By Birgit Buerkner
Mosquito bite with bad consequences. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is currently warning: West Nile fever is spreading in our region!
Like Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony, Berlin and Brandenburg belong to the so-called endemic area in Germany. In 2018, the West Nile virus, originally native to the tropics, was detected in migratory birds for the first time. Mosquitoes infected on birds transmitted the pathogen to humans. 48 infections have been known since then.
Since 2018, there have been at least 14 cases of West Nile fever transmitted by local mosquitoes in Berlin, five of them last year alone. A total of two were registered in Brandenburg.
A micrograph of West Nile Virus Photo: Universal Image Group via Getty Images
According to the RKI, this is just the tip of the iceberg: Most infections are symptom-free or only cause minor symptoms.
About 20 percent of those infected develop a flu-like illness with fever, chills, headache and back pain and a skin rash.
In about every 100th infected person, the pathogen penetrates the nerve tissue and leads to meningitis. In rare cases, inflammation of the brain tissue develops. Possible symptoms are mental changes, muscle weakness, paralysis. Up to 10 percent of patients with nerve involvement die.
The only protection against the virus is general mosquito bite prophylaxis (e.g. wearing long clothing, anti-mosquito products).