A 60-year-old man has been admitted to hospital in Puerto Real, Cádiz, suffering from West Nile Virus, the first confirmed case in humans in Andalucia.
The patient, born in Chiclana, was admitted to hospital with symptoms of meningitis and it was later confirmed that he was affected by the West Nile Virus.
He is recovering well and is expected to be discharged from hospital in a few days.
West Nile encephalitis, caused by West Nile virus, is a non-contagious infectious disease that is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito and primarily affects migratory birds, the main source for epidemics.
This virus is not transmitted from horse to horse or through food intake.
Until now, there had only been one case of infection with West Nile virus in humans in Spain, a patient with acute meningitis. This was in September 2004 in Cornella de Llobregat (Barcelona).