Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Department of Biodiversity, Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, University of Primorska, 6000 Koper, Slovenia.
Viruses. 2020 Jul 3;12(7):720. doi: 10.3390/v12070720.
West Nile virus (WNV) is a flavivirus transmitted by mosquitoes. Birds are the reservoir for the virus; humans, horses and other mammals are dead-end hosts. Infections caused by WNV in humans can vary from asymptomatic infections to West Nile fever (WNF) or West Nile neuroinvasive disease (WNND). In 1995, a serosurvey was performed in Slovenia on forest workers, and WNV specific IgG antibodies were confirmed in 6.8% of the screened samples, indicating that WNV is circulating in Slovenia. No human disease cases were detected in Slovenia until 2013, when the first case of WNV infection was confirmed in a retrospective study in a 79-year old man with meningitis. In 2018, three patients with WNND were confirmed by laboratory tests, with detection of IgM antibodies in the cerebrospinal fluid of the patients. In one of the patients, WNV RNA was detected in the urine sample. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, a mosquito study was performed in Slovenia. Mosquitoes were sampled on 14 control locations and 35 additional locations in 2019. No WNV was detected in mosquitoes in 2017 and 2019, but we confirmed the virus in a pool of sp. mosquitoes in 2018. The virus was successfully isolated, and complete genome sequence was acquired. The whole genome of the WNV was also sequenced from the patient's urine sample. The whole genome sequences of the WNV virus detected in Slovenian patient and mosquito indicate the virus most likely spread from the north, because of the geographic proximity and because the sequences cluster with the Austrian and Hungarian sequences. A sentinel study was performed on dog sera samples, and we were able to confirm IgG antibodies in 1.8% and 4.3% of the samples in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Though Slovenia is not a highly endemic country for WNV, we have established that the virus circulates in Slovenia.
西尼罗河病毒（WNV）是一种由蚊子传播的黄病毒。鸟类是该病毒的储存宿主；人类、马和其他哺乳动物是终端宿主。WNV 感染人类时，可从无症状感染到西尼罗河热（WNF）或西尼罗河神经侵袭性疾病（WNND）。1995 年，斯洛文尼亚对森林工人进行了血清学调查，在筛查样本中确认有 6.8%的样本存在西尼罗河病毒特异性 IgG 抗体，表明 WNV 在斯洛文尼亚流行。直到 2013 年，斯洛文尼亚才首次发现人类疾病病例，当时在一项对一名 79 岁脑膜炎患者的回顾性研究中确认了首例 WNV 感染病例。2018 年，通过实验室检测确诊了 3 例 WNND 患者，患者的脑脊液中检测到 IgM 抗体。其中一名患者的尿液样本中检测到 WNV RNA。2017 年、2018 年和 2019 年，斯洛文尼亚进行了蚊虫研究。2019 年在 14 个对照地点和 35 个额外地点采集了蚊虫样本。2017 年和 2019 年未在蚊虫中检测到 WNV，但我们在 2018 年的一个 sp. 蚊群中确认了该病毒。该病毒成功分离，并获得了完整的基因组序列。还从斯洛文尼亚患者的尿液样本中对 WNV 病毒进行了全基因组测序。在斯洛文尼亚患者和蚊子中检测到的 WNV 病毒的全基因组序列表明，该病毒很可能是从北方传播过来的，因为地理位置相近，而且序列与奥地利和匈牙利的序列聚类。对犬血清样本进行了哨点研究，我们分别在 2017 年和 2018 年确认了 1.8%和 4.3%的样本存在 IgG 抗体。尽管斯洛文尼亚不是 WNV 的高度流行国家，但我们已经确定该病毒在斯洛文尼亚流行。
