Skopje, 17 August 2026 (MIA) – Currently there are 35 confirmed West Nile virus cases, three suspected cases pending diagnostics and six patients in critical condition who are treated at ICU at the Clinic of Infectious Diseases in Skopje. Of the confirmed cases, all but one patient, admitted to a private hospital, are treated at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases, Health Minister Sasho Klekovski said Monday.

Three people have died after being infected with the West Nile virus and 15 have been cured and discharged from the Skopje clinic, Klekovski told a news conference.

At the moment, the most active West Nile virus area in Europe is Athens and Greece so far has registered 81 cases with the neuroinvasive disease and nine deaths, the minister said adding there are cases as well in regions along the border with Macedonia.

“For diagnostics, healthcare capacities have been fully boosted. If 40 analyses a year were conducted in the past, now we have between four and eight analyses a day,” Klekovski said. 

All doctors who could be exposed to potential West Nile virus cases have been informed, he added.

“All infectious diseases wards, general practitioners, family doctors and neurologists have been informed so as to improve capacities to detect and diagnose,” Klekovski stated.

Regarding mapping the cases, a difference should be made between place of residence and the place where the patients were infected with the virus. 

Photo: MIA