European nations report more local detections of chikungunya, dengue

News brief

Italy has reported its first local chikungunya case since 2017, in Piacenza province in Emilia-Romagna region in the north, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said today in its latest weekly communicable disease report.

Aedes mosquito — *UK College of Agriculture, Food & Environment/Flickr cc*

The country is the second on the European mainland to report local chikungunya cases year. France has now confirmed 30 cases in 12 different administrative regions, with the largest cluster (13 cases) reported from Salon-de-Provence, in Bouches-du-Rhône department in the south.

Local dengue cases in 3 countries

Meanwhile, France and Italy have reported their first local dengue cases of the year, France's from the Loire Valley and Italy's in Bologna province. Both involved single cases. Portugal had reported two dengue cases in Madeira in January, which the ECDC said likely involved transmission in 2024.

Earlier this month, the ECDC announced the launch of a new series of mosquito-borne illness updates and published guidance on locally acquired mosquito-transmitted diseases in Europe.

US COVID levels rise a bit in West, South

News brief

Lisa Schnirring

Though COVID-19 activity in the United States is still low, infections are on the rise in some parts of the country, including states in the Southeast, South, and West, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest respiratory virus updates.

The upward trend is reflected mainly in early indicators, including emergency department visits for COVID, which are still very low nationally, at 0.5%. Visits were up 10.9% from the week before, with greater increases in children ages 4 years old and younger. Test positivity is also increasing slightly at the national level, now at 4.8%, up 1.1 percentage points from the previous week.

Wastewater detections climb in several states

Wastewater SARS-CoV-2 detections, another early marker, were at the very low level earlier this summer and are now at the low level, with the highest levels in the West, followed by the South. States at the high level include California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, South Carolina, and Texas.

The CDC has not updated its variant proportion projections since the middle of June, owing to few sequences reported. Its last update reflected growing proportions of newer subvariants that include NB.1.8.1 and XFG.