Four more people have died after contracting West Nile virus from infected mosquitoes in the Netherlands, bringing this outbreak’s death toll to nine.
The deaths were among the twelve new infections reported by the RIVM this past week. In total, 56 people caught the virus from infected mosquitoes circulating throughout several provinces in the Netherlands.
However, there’s a silver lining to the RIVM’s latest update: health authorities now believe that the worst of the outbreak is over.
Lower number of infections reported this week
In a news release, the RIVM notes that they expect “we are past the peak of this West Nile virus outbreak, as the number of new infections has decreased in recent weeks”.
Just twelve new cases have been reported since the week of September 30, down from sixteen the week before.
Animal infections are also slowing down, with just seven birds turning up positive in the last week (compared to 71 the week prior). No new pools of infected mosquitoes have been detected.
Which Dutch provinces have the most infections?
South Holland still takes the lead by a wide margin, accounting for 32 of the 56 total human infections. It’s also where the vast majority of birds with West Nile virus were found (91 out of 178), and is home to the most pools of infected mosquitoes.
Utrecht follows with twelve cases overall, North Holland with five, North Brabant with four, Gelderland with two, and Overijssel with one.
Recently, however, the RIVM has seen an uptick in infected birds from North Brabant and North Holland.
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