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Epidemiology, surveillance and diagnosis of Usutu virus infection in the EU/EEA, 2012 to 2021
- Giorgia Angeloni1,* , Michela Bertola1,* , Elena Lazzaro1 , Matteo Morini1 , Giulia Masi2 , Alessandro Sinigaglia2 , Marta Trevisan2 , Céline M. Gossner3 , Joana M. Haussig3 , Tamas Bakonyi3 , Gioia Capelli1,** , Luisa Barzon2,**
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsAffiliations: 1 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Viale dell’Università 10, Legnaro (Padua), Italy 2 Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padua, Via Gabelli 63, Padua (Padua), Italy 3 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Solna, Sweden * These authors contributed equally to the work and share first authorship. ** These authors contributed equally to the work and share last authorshipLuisa Barzonluisa.barzon unipd.it
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Citation style for this article: Angeloni Giorgia, Bertola Michela, Lazzaro Elena, Morini Matteo, Masi Giulia, Sinigaglia Alessandro, Trevisan Marta, Gossner Céline M., Haussig Joana M., Bakonyi Tamas, Capelli Gioia, Barzon Luisa. Epidemiology, surveillance and diagnosis of Usutu virus infection in the EU/EEA, 2012 to 2021. Euro Surveill. 2023;28(33):pii=2200929. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.33.2200929 Received: 03 Dec 2022; Accepted: 08 May 2023
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Abstract
Usutu virus (USUV) is a flavivirus with an enzootic cycle between birds and mosquitoes; humans are incidental dead-end hosts. In Europe, the virus was first detected in Italy in 1996; since then, it has spread to many European countries.
We aimed to report on the epidemiology, surveillance, diagnosis and prevention of USUV infection in humans, mosquitoes and other animals in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) from 2012 to 2021.
We collected information through a literature review, an online survey and an expert meeting.
Eight countries reported USUV infection in humans (105 cases, including 12* with neurological symptoms), 15 countries in birds and seven in mosquitoes. Infected animals were also found among pets, wild and zoo animals. Usutu virus was detected primarily in Culex pipiens but also in six other mosquito species. Detection of USUV infection in humans is notifiable only in Italy, where it is under surveillance since 2017 and now integrated with surveillance in animals in a One Health approach. Several countries include USUV infection in the differential diagnosis of viral encephalitis and arbovirus infections. Animal USUV infection is not notifiable in any EU/EEA country.
Human USUV infections, mainly asymptomatic and, less frequently, with a febrile illness or a neuroinvasive disease, have been reported in several EU/EEA countries, where the virus is endemic. Climate and environmental changes are expected to affect the epidemiology of USUV. A One Health approach could improve the monitoring of its evolution in Europe.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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