• Saturated nurse Everything you need to know about West Nile virus

A 76-year-old woman from El Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona) who was admitted to the ICU of the Bellvitge Hospital in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat is the first case treated as West Nile Virus (WNV) in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona.

According to sources from the Catalan Department of Health, it is a 76-year-old woman, with a delicate state of health, who was admitted to the Bellvitge Hospital and later to the ICU.

Currently, according to the same sources, he is in a social health center in the process of recovery, since, beyond the infection, his state of health is delicate.

The case is declared probable due to the difficulty of making the definitive diagnosis and, so far, Health has not received results from the Carlos III Health Institute of the samples sent to confirm that it is WNV.

This virus, rare in Spain although there have been some cases, is transmitted essentially by the bite of infected mosquitoes and 80% of infected people do not have any symptoms.

In those that do present symptoms, it can be fever, headaches, tiredness, body aches, nausea, vomiting and, sometimes, skin rash; In the case of severe condition, it can disturb the nervous system and cause encephalitis or meningitis, so it can become fatal.

Given the suspicion of this case, the Department of Health of the Generalitat has alerted all healthcare centers, both primary and hospital, to detect new possiblecases, something that has not yet occurred.

An entomological investigation of the area where the person resided has also been carried out to analyze larvae and adult mosquitoes.

Likewise, control measures have been adopted in sinkholes and areas that require special surveillance, due to the large influx of citizens they have, and in particular this area was treated with larvicides on two occasions, one before and one after the declaration of suspicion to guarantee disinfection.

Information leaflets have also been distributed in informative leaflets with advice on how to avoid the proliferation of mosquitoes in homes.

For its part, the Blood and Tissue Bank has initiated universal WNV screening on all donations in Catalonia.