Overview
- Augsburg’s health office confirmed a deadly BoDV-1 infection Thursday after the patient had been admitted to the university hospital in April.
- Doctors describe a fast-moving brain inflammation with confusion, cognitive decline, speech problems, and seizures, according to the neurology chief at University Hospital Augsburg.
- The field shrew carries BoDV-1 and likely passes it to people through contact with its excretions such as droppings, urine, saliva, or shed skin.
- Authorities advise using gloves, eye protection, and a fine-dust mask when cleaning places where shrews may live, then showering, washing clothes, and sealing any carcass in a plastic bag for household trash.
- Germany records fewer than ten human cases a year, with many in Bavaria, and recent fatal cases were reported in Bad Wörishofen in late April, Erding in March, and earlier in Tirschenreuth and Pfaffenhofen; Augsburg last noted two cases in 2023.