Aussie woman dies after acquiring West Nile virus on European holiday
It's a heads-up for GPs with older patients intent on bucket-list travel, say doctors
Australia’s second case of imported West Nile virus is a reminder for doctors to be alert for immunocompromised older patients planning travel to endemic destinations, doctors say.
They say that with increasing international travel and climate change affecting mosquito habitat, cases “may well increase”.
The single case of West Nile virus, discovered in a 63-year-old Melbourne woman, occurred last year after she returned from two months in South-East Europe and presented to hospital with chills, vomiting and diarrhoea.
“Travel included a Danube river cruise trip and time in Serbia, Croatia, Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary,” noted Melbourne-based clinicians writing in the MJA.
