West Nile virus kills 3 in Serbia

West Nile virus has killed at least three elderly people in Serbia, Olga Dulovic, deputy director of Belgrade's Clinic for Infectious and Tropical Diseases, said on Thursday. She said doctors at the hospital confirmed through analyses that the cause of death of the three people last month was viral encephalitis, though the patients had other health complications. Dulovic said Wednesday that another 16 people have been infected with tiger mosquito-carried West Nile virus, and by Wednesday the total number of people infected in Serbia reached 37. These were figures by the end of August and there might be possible increase in the number of West Nile patients, depending on how many mosquitoes will be "active" in the coming days, she added. Dulovic said earlier that around 20 patients had been hospitalized at the clinic with symptoms that suggest a possible encephalitis infection, and two of them had been proved to be infected with the virus, as it sometimes takes up to two weeks to get lab test results. However, Dulovic said, people in Serbia have no reason for alarm, as many forms of viral encephalitis could be mild and pass unnoticed, although some others could be very serious and life- threatening. Serbia's Health Minister Slavica Djukic Dejanovic also said there was no danger of a West Nile virus epidemic in Serbia.  text he