A new case of the West Nile virus has been detected in the Amsterdam region, the Public Health Service (GGD) confirmed after it was reported on AT5. The regional broadcaster reported that it is a 39-year-old woman from Amstelveen who is infected, but the spokesperson for the GGD could not confirm this for privacy reasons.

AT5 also wrote that she picked up the virus in the Netherlands and it has led to meningitis. This too could not be confirmed or denied by the GGD spokesperson.

Last week it was reported that a Dutch national had died from the West Nile virus. The person lived in the province of Utrecht and had picked up the virus in the Netherlands.

A woman from Drenthe had died as a result of the virus in early August. There is another person who is currently in the hospital with the infection, and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) thinks that one more person may also be infected with the virus.

It became clear on August 17 that the virus had been detected in a blood donor who had not been abroad, where it is more common to pick up the virus.

The chances of becoming infected with West Nile virus in the Netherlands remain very small, the RIVM said last week. Thus far, there have been three confirmed infections in 2026 that were contracted in the Netherlands. It is unclear whether the infection in the Amsterdam region is included in this.

The virus is found in birds and can spread to humans and horses through bites from the common house mosquito. Neither humans nor horses can then transmit the virus to others.

People can become ill due to the virus, but 80 percent of the infected feel no symptoms. West Nile fever, which comes with flu-like symptoms, occurs in 19 percent of the infected people. Neurological complications occur in 1 percent of all infections. A small share of people with severe West Nile fever can die from it.