Early rise of West Nile fever in Israel, June 2024

Zohar Mor*, Husein Omari, Victoria Indenbaum, Oscar D. Kirstein, Oren Shatach Catabi, Shay Reicher, Yaniv Lustig, Maya Davidovich-Cohen, Ehud Kaliner, Rivka Sheffer, Shirly Elbaz, Or Kriger, Sharon Alroy-Preis

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

This report describes an unusual surge of West Nile fever in Israel in June 2024, during which 125 cases were diagnosed, compared with 4 cases on average during June in previous years (2014–23). Of the cases, 64 (62.1%) had neuroinvasive disease and 12 (9.6%) died; the 2024 case fatality rate was not significantly elevated vs the average rate in 2014–23. The early rise could be related to a temperature increase in spring and early summer of 2024. Israel is an endemic country for West Nile virus (WNV) since 1951 [1], and West Nile fever (WNF) cases are usually reported from June to October, with a peak in August. Here, we report a remarkable increase in WNF cases in early summer 2024 in Israel. We describe the epidemiological, clinical and genetic findings and compare to data reported in previous years (2014–23) and outline the public health measures to contain the outbreak using a One Health approach.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-5
Number of pages5
JournalEurosurveillance
Volume29
Issue number30
DOIs
StatePublished - 30 Jul 2024

Funding

FundersFunder number
Ministry of Health, State of Israel

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