PRAGUE, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- A southern Czech hospital in Breclav has confirmed that a man in the hospital had contracted the West Nile fever, hospital spokeswoman Tana Svobodova said on Monday.

The patient has not stayed abroad recently, and is therefore believed to have contracted the disease in the Czech Republic.

The first confirmed case of West Nile fever to be contracted in the country was a 72-year-old woman who died in the same hospital.

Svobodova said the hospital's transfusion ward has suspended blood collection. She said the patient is staying at the contagious diseases ward, is in stable condition, and doctors are considering releasing him to home care.

The hospital does not plan to invoke any special measures in connection with the disease. West Nile is transferred only by a certain mosquito species. Man-to-man transfer has so far not been proved, said Svobodova.

Experts said the virus has been routinely found in mosquitoes, birds and horses in the Czech Republic of late, and that it was a question of time as to when someone would become infected. Enditem

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