The West Nile virus is endemic in multiple European countries and responsible for several epidemics throughout the European region. Its evolution into local or even widespread epidemics is driven by multiple factors from genetic diversification of the virus to environmental conditions. The year of 2018 was characterized by an extraordinary increase in human and animal cases in the Central-Eastern European region, including Hungary. In a collaborative effort, we summarized and analyzed the genetic and serologic data of WNV infections from multiple Hungarian public health institutions, universities, and private organizations. We compared human and veterinary serologic data, along with NS5 and NS3 gene sequence data through 2018. Wild birds were excellent indicator species for WNV circulation in each year. Our efforts resulted in documenting the presence of multiple phylogenetic subclades with Balkans and Western-European progenitor sequences of WNV circulating among human and animal populations in Hungary prior to and during the 2018 epidemic. Supported by our sequence and phylogenetic data, the epidemic of 2018 was not caused by recently introduced WNV strains. Unfortunately, Hungary has no country-wide integrated surveillance system which would enable the analysis of related conditions and provide a comprehensive epidemiological picture. The One Health approach, involving multiple institutions and experts, should be implemented in order to fully understand ecological background factors driving the evolution of future epidemics.

中文翻译：

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关于匈牙利西尼罗河病毒情况的多方法调查，2018年。

西尼罗河病毒在多个欧洲国家中很流行，并且在整个欧洲地区引起了几次流行。从病毒的遗传多样性到环境条件，多种因素推动了它向局部乃至广泛流行的演变。2018年的特点是包括匈牙利在内的中东欧地区的人类和动物病例激增。在一次合作中，我们总结并分析了来自多个匈牙利公共卫生机构，大学和私人组织的WNV感染的遗传和血清学数据。我们比较了截至2018年的人和兽医血清学数据以及NS5和NS3基因序列数据。野生鸟类是每年WNV循环的极好的指示物种。我们的努力导致记录了在2018年流行之前和期间在匈牙利的人类和动物种群中循环传播的巴尔干和西欧WNV祖细胞序列的多个系统发育亚群。在我们的序列和系统发育数据的支持下，2018年的流行不是由最近引入的WNV菌株引起的。不幸的是，匈牙利没有全国范围内的综合监测系统，无法对相关状况进行分析并提供全面的流行病学资料。为了充分理解推动未来流行病发展的生态背景因素，应实施由多个机构和专家参与的“单一健康”方法。