Overview

• Italy’s Istituto Superiore di Sanità logged 57 new human infections and eight fatalities in the final week of July, raising the 2025 total to 89 cases
• West Nile virus is transmitted to people by Culex mosquitoes that acquire the pathogen when feeding on infected birds, and about 80% of infections are asymptomatic
• No vaccine or specific antiviral treatment exists, so medical care is limited to managing fever and other symptoms
• Germany has recorded one locally acquired human case tied to contact with an infected bird as well as sporadic infections in birds and horses
• The Robert Koch-Institut and ECDC caution that mild winters and hot summers may entrench seasonal West Nile virus outbreaks across central Europe