the spread of the mosquito-borne virus has killed nearly a dozen people in the war-torn country in three months.
“It is serious, it will remain serious,” Ukraine’s Deputy Health Minister and epidemiologist Ihor Kuzin told the BBC‘s Ukrainian service in an interview published on Sunday.
The West Nile virus is typically spread by infected mosquitoes, and can produce symptoms such as a fever, aching, vomiting, rashes, diarrhea and headaches, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is more common during the summer and fall seasons, when mosquitoes are more prevalent.
Humans are infected with West Nile when mosquitoes bite them after feeding on birds with the virus, the CDC said.
Outbreak hotspots are typically found on bird migratory routes, according to the World Health Organization. “Several flight paths of such birds pass through Ukraine,” Kuzin said. Around one in 150 people infected with the West Nile develops a serious or fatal illness, according to the public health agency. An estimated 80 percent of people with the virus do not show symptoms.
Ukraine’s Health Ministry-run Public Health Center said the mortality rate sits between 2 and 14 percent. There is currently no vaccine or specific treatment for West Nile. The virus has been around for almost a century, and was first discovered in Uganda in the 1930s. It is now found in many places across the world.
