Blood banks in the Utrecht area will test supplied blood for the West Nile virus, reports Heart of the Netherlands Thursday. The reason is the first infection in the Netherlands.
Last week, a man in the Netherlands was infected with the West Nile virus. The man has not recently been abroad and has “possibly contracted the virus in the Utrecht region through a mosquito bite,” reported the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) on Thursday. It is the first time that the virus has been found in a person who contracted it in the Netherlands.
A spokesperson for the Sanquin blood supply organization arrives Heart of the Netherlands know that the infection was not unexpected. “We had known for some time that the virus was advancing further to the north, so the scenarios were already ready. Because the virus can also be transmitted via the blood, we will also test the blood for it now that this first infection has taken place in our country.”
For the time being, only the blood in the Utrecht area is checked for the virus.
West Nile virus is common in birds and is transmitted by mosquitoes, which feed through infected birds. Then the mosquitoes infect other birds. People can get sick from the virus, but it does not play a role in its spread. “The virus is not transmitted from human to human or from human to animal”, reports the RIVM. The RIVM also points out that the mosquito season is coming to an end and that the risk of infection is minimal.
‘Infected man had a fever, muscle pain and headache’
Most people don’t get sick from an infection. According to the RIVM, 80 percent get no complaints at all and the rest experience mild symptoms. “However, about 1 percent of people who are infected can develop a serious neurological disease, such as encephalitis.”
The infected man in the Netherlands did have complaints, according to the RIVM. He had a fever, muscle aches and headache. “He was very ill, had not only minor complaints. A doctor then saw the symptoms and thought about the West Nile virus. He was tested for it, and it turned out that he had it.”
An infection with the virus has already been diagnosed in people in the Netherlands, but they were infected abroad. In the summer, for the first time in the Netherlands, a bird was found that was infected with the West Nile virus.
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