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27/07/2004
West Nile Virus detected in Republic
Two cases of West Nile Virus infection have been confirmed in Ireland, it has been revealed.
The virus, which usually causes mild symptoms such as fever or skin rashes but can be deadly, is believed to have been contracted by patients who had recently visited the Algarve in Portugal.
Dr Dilys Morgan, a West Nile Virus expert at the Health Protection Agency, said that while this was the first time his agency had been aware of the virus being contracted in the Algarve. There have been sporadic clusters of the Virus in a number of European countries in recent decades.
Dr Morgan confirmed that his Agency was working closely with colleagues in the Republic of Ireland, and that the Irish cases had been confirmed after tests were carried out at the Health Protection Agency facilties in Porton.
The virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes that suck the blood of infected birds and then feed on humans, killed 264 people in the United States last year.
(MB)
The virus, which usually causes mild symptoms such as fever or skin rashes but can be deadly, is believed to have been contracted by patients who had recently visited the Algarve in Portugal.
Dr Dilys Morgan, a West Nile Virus expert at the Health Protection Agency, said that while this was the first time his agency had been aware of the virus being contracted in the Algarve. There have been sporadic clusters of the Virus in a number of European countries in recent decades.
Dr Morgan confirmed that his Agency was working closely with colleagues in the Republic of Ireland, and that the Irish cases had been confirmed after tests were carried out at the Health Protection Agency facilties in Porton.
The virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes that suck the blood of infected birds and then feed on humans, killed 264 people in the United States last year.
(MB)
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