The tests done yesterday are expected to be additionally confirmed by the National Public Health Institute in about ten days, he added.
The 65-year-old man was hospitalised in Slavonski Brod a month ago. The chief of the general hospital's infectology ward, Nenad Pandak, said the patient was initially in grave condition but was slowly recovering and his life was not in danger.
Health Minister Rajko Ostojic reiterated in Donji Lapac that Croatian citizens need not be afraid of the West Nile virus and that the patient was probably infected in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, where he stayed in late July.
"The message is, there's no need to panic, because this disease is not transmitted from man to man but by mosquito bite. A good disinfection was carried out this year, notably in the Slavonia region," he said, adding that a management centre for this infection held its first meeting today and was monitoring the situation.