Plovdiv man diagnosed with Bulgaria's first West Nile fever case of the season

A 63-year-old man from Plovdiv has been identified as the first registered case of West Nile fever in Bulgaria this season. After vacationing on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast in late July, the patient experienced muscle pain, cough, and high fever.

Following his admission to Pulmed Hospital, the infection led to neurological complications, including double vision and facial nerve palsy. Medical specialists noted that the clinical symptoms and test results suggested the development of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder where the immune system attacks the peripheral nervous system, often triggered by a preceding viral or bacterial infection.

Epidemiologists state that while the case warrants increased attention, it is not a cause for panic. The West Nile virus is known to circulate in Europe, with cases reported in neighboring countries such as Greece, Romania, and North Macedonia. Previous studies in Bulgaria have detected the virus's genetic material in mosquitoes and found a 1.5% seropositivity rate in a national serological survey.