A man was infected with the West Nile virus last week. The man has not recently been abroad and has contracted the virus “possibly in the Utrecht region through a mosquito bite”, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) reports Thursday. It is the first time that the virus has been found in a person who contracted it in the Netherlands.
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.”
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.”
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.
The RIVM points out that the mosquito season is coming to an end and that the risk of infection is minimal.
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