As Europe warms, Italy sees West Nile virus spread farther and longer

ROME (AP) — Italian health authorities see evidence that rising temperatures and longer warm seasons are helping mosquitoes spread West Nile virus across a wider area, during more months of the year.

More than 650 infections have been reported in Italy so far this year, accounting for roughly half of all cases recorded in Europe, according to local health authorities.

“Higher temperatures linked to climate change help mosquitoes reproduce and extend the transmission season, increasing the chances that infected mosquitoes will spread the virus to people,” said Antonino Bella, researcher at Italy’s National Institute of Health, or ISS.

West Nile has been considered endemic in Italy since 2020, when cases started to surge, and is now reported every summer and early fall. About 80% of infected people develop no symptoms, while most others experience a mild flu-like illness. Severe neurological complications occur in a small minority of cases, mainly among older adults and people with underlying health conditions.

Experts say this year’s case numbers are broadly in line with recent seasons.

But warmer temperatures favor mosquito reproduction and can mean the transmission season sometimes lasts as late as November, Bella explained. Areas once largely unaffected are increasingly reporting infections, reflecting a gradual expansion of the virus across the country.

Italy’s experience with the virus is drawing attention from European countries located farther north. A Belgian research team visited the ISS last May to study Italy’s research and surveillance system after the country began recording locally acquired West Nile cases.

The Netherlands this year has reported more than two dozen West Nile cases, the first since 2020, as well as several deaths, according to its public health institute.

“There’s no doubt that warming weather will expand the period of replication for the virus and the vector in more countries,” said Marc-Alain Widdowson, who leads the Pandemic Threats, Communicable Diseases, and AMR Division at the World Health Organization’s Europe office.

“You’ve got to be careful not to say that climate change is all of it, but certainly a warming climate means that we have a longer mosquito season, so that the vectors can survive for longer. Warm temperatures also mean that the virus itself will survive better,” he added.

Experts note that Italy’s extensive monitoring network, which tracks mosquitoes, birds, blood donors and human infections, also helps explain why the country detects so many cases.

“There are definitely trends which we think are contributing to increased activity,” Widdowson said, citing a warming climate, loss of biodiversity and changes in land use. A longer mosquito season creates more opportunities for transmission, he added, while declines in bird diversity may favor species that are efficient reservoirs of the virus.

In June, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, or ECDC, warned that because Europe is experiencing a warming trend — with heat waves and flooding becoming more frequent and severe, and summers getting longer and warmer — the conditions are more favorable for invasive mosquito species such as Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti.

Aedes aegypti — known to transmit dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, zika and West Nile viruses — has been established in Cyprus since 2022 and may spread to other European countries.

A decade ago, the Aedes albopictus mosquito was established in eight European countries, with 114 regions affected. This year, the mosquito is established in 13 countries and 337 regions, the ECDC said.

Francesco Severino, a senior researcher in medical entomology, moves a cage containing mosquitoes inside a laboratory at the Italian National Institute of Health in Rome, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Mosquitoes are kept in a laboratory enclosure for research into mosquito-borne diseases at the Italian National Institute of Health in Rome, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Francesco Severino, a senior researcher in medical entomology, places a net over a cage containing mosquitoes inside a laboratory at the Italian National Institute of Health in Rome, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Antonino Bella, senior researcher at the Infectious Diseases Department of the Italian National Institute of Health, checks a map of Italy showing provinces with confirmed circulation of West Nile virus (WNV) in vectors, animals, and humans for the 2026 season, in Rome, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Antonino Bella, a senior researcher at the Infectious Diseases Department of the Italian National Institute of Health, looks at a map of Italy showing provinces with confirmed circulation of West Nile virus in vectors, animals, and humans during the 2026 season, in Rome, Friday, Sept. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivian lawmakers approved a $1.9 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund on Friday, delivering the conservative government a key victory in its efforts to ease the country's deep economic crisis as unions threatened renewed protests.

Just hours after Congress approved the loan, President Rodrigo Paz announced an immediate end to subsidies for the diesel powering Bolivia’s trucks, buses and tractors — a step toward meeting IMF demands. Gasoline, used mainly in private cars, would remain subsidized for now, though Paz had already scaled back that support in recent months.

The Senate ratified the IMF agreement a day after the lower house approved it, clearing the final legislative hurdle for the three-year financing program aimed at replenishing dwindling foreign reserves and stabilizing the ailing economy marked by high inflation and weak growth. The IMF first announced the staff-level agreement in July after months of negotiations with Paz’s market-friendly government, which took power last year after nearly two decades of socialist rule as part of a wave of new Latin American leaders allied with the Trump administration.

The program still requires approval from the IMF’s executive board before funds can be disbursed. Economy Minister Christian Morales told senators that the deal would give other lenders, including the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, greater confidence in the government and help it secure about $5 billion in additional financing.

But the assistance is conditioned on tough economic measures, including the elimination of fuel subsidies, that threaten to reignite unrest in Bolivia, where weeks of road blockades in June and July paralyzed much of the South American nation as demonstrators demanded Paz’s resignation. Congress on Thursday extended for another 90 days a state of emergency that Paz had declared to clear roads during the protests. It allows for military intervention and the suspension of some civil liberties.

The Bolivian Workers’ Central, the country’s main labor federation, and other unions have voiced fierce opposition to the IMF loan, warning that the government spending cuts required under the deal would drive up living costs and deepen hardship for struggling families.

Although Paz’s Christian Democratic Party lacks a majority in Congress, the centrist and right-wing lawmakers that dominate both chambers rallied behind the deal. The Movement Toward Socialism, the party that dominated Bolivian politics after the former coca growers’ union leader Evo Morales won the presidency in 2005, now holds just two of the 130 seats in the lower house and none in the 36-member Senate.

Declining natural gas exports have deprived Bolivia of dollars needed to import gasoline and diesel, contributing to chronic fuel shortages that began in 2023 and have persisted under Paz. The Iran war has pushed up global fuel costs, making fuel subsidies an even greater burden on public finances.

“No one can buy something expensive and sell it cheap,” Paz said in his late-night declaration that diesel in Bolivia would now be sold at international prices.

To cushion the blow, he announced about $79 million in cash assistance for 2.9 million Bolivians, along with loans on preferential terms for truckers, small businesses and producers facing higher diesel costs. He pledged to redirect subsidy spending toward schools, hospitals and roads.

He promised the change would end the country’s persistent diesel shortages, which have disrupted harvests and delayed deliveries of imported goods. “With this measure, we guarantee supplies 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.

DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Police escort teachers during an anti-government protest in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Teachers shout slogans during an anti-government protest in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

A teacher holds an empty pot during an anti-government protest in La Paz, Bolivia, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)