{"id":459889,"date":"2026-03-06T02:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T02:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/459889\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T02:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T02:10:11","slug":"health-officials-spain-warning-after-virus-discovered-in-human-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/459889\/","title":{"rendered":"Health officials Spain warning after virus discovered in human &#8216;for first time&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Spanish authorities have warned the World Health Organisation that the person may have contracted the virus from a human<\/p>\n<p>11:51, 05 Mar 2026Updated 13:30, 05 Mar 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A case of swine flu in a human has been found in Catalonia with officials thinking it could have been caught from another person\" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1_GettyImages-1317297573.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"A case of swine flu in a human has been found in Catalonia, Spain with officials thinking it could have been caught from another person\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">A case of swine flu in a human has been found in Catalonia, Spain with officials thinking it could have been caught from another person(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Health officials have issued an alert after a case of swine flu was detected in a human last month. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said this marks the first case of H1N1v flu in Spain since 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Since 2009, only four human cases of swine flu have been documented in Spain. The person had no known <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/health\/eight-viruses-making-people-ill-36779425\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">contact with pigs or environmental exposures<\/a>. Spanish authorities have warned the World Health Organization that the person may have contracted the virus from a human.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The case was discovered in Catalonia and officials from the ECDC said: \u201cAccording to the latest available information, the case has no known history of exposure to pigs or a contaminated environment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cCases of swine influenza have been sporadically reported in Spain and in other countries, the last case being from the autonomous region of Catalonia reported in 2024 (onset of symptoms in 2023).\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">In Spain, a total of<a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/health\/eight-viruses-making-people-ill-36779425\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\"> four human cases of swine influenza<\/a> A(H1N1)v have been reported in the last 17 years, and no human to human transmission has been identified to date.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The ECDC said: \u201cA sample taken as part of the acute respiratory infections surveillance system tested positive for influenza A. Subsequent testing was positive for swine influenza A(H1N1)v at the reference laboratory of the autonomous region of Catalonia.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" data-tmdatatrack=\"read-more\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"36522154\" data-tmdatatrack-source=\"editorial\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/uk-news\/breaking-uk-bird-flu-outbreak-36522154\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UK bird flu outbreak confirmed as 3km protection zone declared<\/a>READ MORE: <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" data-tmdatatrack=\"read-more\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"36518332\" data-tmdatatrack-source=\"editorial\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/health\/infectious-disease-expert-names-three-36518332\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Infectious disease expert names three viruses threatening mankind in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;The case remains asymptomatic, while epidemiological investigations are still ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The ECDC said \u2018sporadic human cases\u2019 infected with influenza virus of swine origin have previously been reported from several countries globally, including in the EU. It added: \u201cThe exposure to infected pigs represents the most common source of infection in humans. Limited, non-sustained human-to-human transmission of variant influenza viruses has previously been documented, although it remains a rare event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Swine flu in humans presents with symptoms similar to seasonal influenza, including high fever, dry cough, sore throat, severe headache, muscle aches, fatigue, and sometimes vomiting or diarrhea. Symptoms appear quickly and can be severe, especially in children, with potential for rapid progression to breathing difficulties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spanish authorities have warned the World Health Organisation that the person may have contracted the virus from a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[935,8447,59,102,640,26740,165370,56,54,55,26582],"class_list":["post-459889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-european-union","tag-flu","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-spain","tag-surveillance","tag-swine-flu","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-world-health-organization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}