A total 24 deaths from the West Nile virus have been recorded so far this year in Greece, health officials said, with new infections slowing slightly.
The National Public Health Organisation, known by its Greek EODY acronym, said that by shortly before noon Wednesday 290 infections had been registered, with 199 patients presenting encephalitis, meningitis, paralysis or a combination of the above.
The first recorded case of the disease this year reported the first symptoms on June 25.
EODY said that over the previous week 58 new cases were reported, compared to 75 a week before, and there were five new deaths. All 24 people who died were aged over 65. People presenting severe symptoms were aged 13-96.
Fewer than 1% of people infected develop severe symptoms – mostly patients aged over 50. The deadliest year since data started to be kept in 2010 was 2018, when 317 infections were recorded and 51 people died.
