Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics

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being hypertension (14/51.8%) and diabetes (7/25.9%). Two patients (7.4%) underwent organ transplantation. (kidney, heart). The main clinical symptoms and ...
Demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with West Nile neuroinvasive disease in Croatia, 2012-2013 Marija Santini1, Tatjana Vilibic-Cavlek2, Bruno Barsic1, Nenad Pandak3, Ljiljana Peric4, Iva Kokic5, Ljubo Barbic6, Vladimir Stevanovic6, Eddy Listes7, Annapia di Gennaro8, Giovanni Savini8 1University

Hospital for Infectious Diseases "Dr Fran Mihaljevic", Zagreb, Croatia; 2Croatian National Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia; 3General Hospital "Dr Josip Bencevic", Slavonski Brod, Croatia; 4Clinical Hospital Center Osijek, Osijek, Croatia, 5Medjimurje County Institute of Public Health, Cakovec, Croatia; 6Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; 7Croatian Veterinary Institute, Regional Institute Split, Croatia; 8OIE Reference Centre for West Nile Disease, Istituto Zooprofillatico Sperimentale "G. Caporale", Teramo, Italy

Introduction and purpose:

Table 1. Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with WNV neuroinvasive disease

West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne virus that belongs to the Japanese encephalitis antigenic complex of the genus Flavivirus, family Flaviviridae. The virus is maintained in nature in a transmission cycle between birds and mosquitoes, mainly of the genus Culex, with occasional infections of humans, horses, and other mammals that are considered dead-end hosts. Most human WNV infections (~80%) are asymptomatic. Approximately 20% of infected persons develop a non-specific febrile illness ("WNV fever"), while less than 1% develop neuroinvasive disease (meningitis, encephalitis, acute flaccid paralysis). In the last few years, WNV has re-emerged in many European countries. In Croatia, cases of WNV infection were detected during the two consecutive transmission seasons (2012 and 2013). We analyzed demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics of Croatian patients with WNV neuroinvasive disease.

Characteristic Gender Male Female Age group