First person in the Netherlands tests positive for West Nile virus

Someone in the Netherlands tested positive for the West Nile virus last week, the first such case to hit the Netherlands. The man was believed to have been infected by a mosquito bite in the Utrecht region.

He has not left the country recently, public health agency RIVM said. “It is the first time that an infection of this virus has been found in a person who contracted it in the Netherlands,” the RIVM stated.

Roughly one percent of infected humans develop encephalitis, or another serious neurological disease, with around 20 percent showing mild flu-like symptoms or a fever. The remainder shows no adverse symptoms.

Last month was the first time that an animal was found infected with the virus, when a bird in the Utrecht region tested positive for West Nile. The warbler was captured in the Utrecht region in late August as part of an early detection and warning program organized by Erasmus Medical Center.

“The mosquitoes become infected by feeding on infected birds. These mosquitoes then spread the virus to other birds and sometimes to humans and other mammals, such as horses,” the RIVM said.

“The virus is not transmitted from human to human or from human to animal.”