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A woman from Amstelveen has contracted a rare form of meningitis from with the West Nile virus, the local health board has confirmed.
The 39-year-old woman is the fourth person known to have been infected with the virus in the Netherlands this year but the first to develop meningitis, which occurs in around 1% of cases.
West Nile virus is transmitted by mosquitos, but previously was caught by people who travelled abroad.
The public health agency RIVM said his year’s cluster of cases in humans, horses and birds show the diseased is now established in the Netherlands.
A week ago the RIVM confirmed that a man had died in hospital in Utrecht from West Nile fever after being infected locally. A woman in Drenthe died from the same illness, but she caught the virus while travelling.
The RIVM will publish an update on the current cases later this week. The agency stressed that the risk of serious illness or death is very low, with 80% of people reporting no symptoms at all.
Another 19% experience mild symptoms such as fever, headache, stomach ache and diarrhoea, as well as occasional skin rashes and swollen lymph nodes.
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