MONTEVIDEO, Aug. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- One Uruguayan has been found infected with the West Nile virus, the first one in the country, Uruguayan Health Burean Director Diego Estol announced Wednesday.

    According to the initial diagnosis and investigation, Estol said the patient was infected with the disease in the United States, but he did not give further information about the patient.

    The West Nile virus was first discovered in Uganda's West Nile District in 1937. Experts said 80 percent of people infected with the virus, which is spread by mosquitoes that feed on infected birds, can develop headaches, fever and body aches and the death rate amounts to 1 percent.

    The virus spread to the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia inthe 1950s, and to Algeria, Romania, the Czech Republic, Congo and Russia since the 1990s.

    The epidemic first hit the United States in 1999 in New York and has killed more than 560 people in the past five years. The disease struck the country again this year with the West Nile infections in eight states by the end of June. Enditem