Two imported cases of West Nile fever in Denmark

In the light of the current American epidemic, and since West Nile fever (WNF) has never previously been reported in Denmark, we describe two cases imported from Israel and Canada, respectively. WNF was diagnosed in a 46-year-old Danish tourist returning from Israel and a visiting 73-year-old Canadian citizen with Danish ancestry. The former manifested itself clinically as a mild flu-like illness, the latter as serious infection of the central nervous system. Thus, in addition to representing a rare case of West Nile encephalitis, it also constitutes one of the first reported cases of human infection of Canadian origin.