According to the latest bulletin issued by the Higher Institute of Health (ISS), the disease is currently spreading to the northern regions of the country, with infections now recorded in 52 Italian provinces, a substantial increase compared to the 42 reported the previous week.

Patients with West Nile fever have been detected in 15 of the 20 regions of this European nation, the majority in Lazio and Campania, although Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Abruzzo, Molise, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily, and Sardinia are also included.

Among the reported cases, 126 were neuroinvasive, 50 of them in Campania and 47 in Lazio, plus seven in Lombardy, six in Piedmont, five in Veneto, four in Emilia-Romagna, three in Calabria, two in Sardinia, and one each in Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Basilicata.

The mortality rate, calculated based on the neuroinvasive forms reported and confirmed to date, is 15,1%, higher than the 14,0 percentage points observed in 2024, but still below the 20,0 percentage points observed in 2018, the document states.

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