The person infected was one of some 30 potential patients who were tested in Slovenia this year for West Nile fever, a viral infection typically spread by mosquitoes.
Only one case was detected in the past week in a person from central Slovenia, who has been discharged and whose condition is improving, the NIJZ told the STA on Tuesday.
"The confirmation of a West Nile fever case in Slovenia is in line with expectations, as cases have been recorded in certain bordering regions of the neighbouring countries for more than a month," the institute added.
Maja Sočan of the NIJZ told the press that this was not the first West Nile case in Slovenia. The first was recorded in 2013, and another one in 2017, with the latter involving a person who got infected in Greece.
"We can thus speak about only the second case of a person getting infected within the country," Sočan added.
According to the data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control as at 30 August, more than 700 people got infected with West Nile fever in the EU countries.
The NIJZ noted that a majority of persons stung by a mosquito infected with West Nile fever do not get infected themselves, and only around a fifth of the infected persons get a flu-like fever which ends without any consequences.
Only 1% of infected persons get meningoencephalitis (simultaneous inflammation of the meninges and the brain). Most of such persons are older than 65 or chronically ill.
There is no effective vaccine against the infection.
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