“We go to the dead doctor and they give us paracetamol.” Paco Macarena is one of the 61 people affected by the West Nile virus that appear this year in the official statistics of the Junta de Andalucía. His testimony is among those heard this Monday at the rally to demand that more measures be taken to prevent the West Nile virus, which is transmitted by the bite of the common mosquito.
The neighbors of Isla Mayor, the host municipality, La Puebla del Río, Coria del Río, Dos Hermanas or Mairena del Aljarafe, have gathered to raise their voices and demand energetic measures, which include above all the fight against the largest larvae, against the adult mosquito, and for the development of an effective vaccine, which is in the final phase of research.
And this is not the first time they have taken to the streets this summer. In addition, it is the third demonstration they have called from the platform, on the same day that the Andalusian government reported new cases in the province of Seville and the presence of the virus in mosquitoes in Malaga, the Cádiz municipalities of Barbate, Benalup. Casas Viejas and Tarifa, and in a trap located in the Marismas del Odiel Natural Park, in Huelva.
Paco’s testimony is that of a man who admits to having “after-effects that doctors have already told me will last a long time”, while explaining that he has no illness and has never taken medication. From their testimony, we can deduce one of the demands that those affected are demanding: more resources so that health workers can do their job.
Like him, Eva Guardado, the daughter of a woman “who became paralyzed in three days,” explained that it took three visits to the emergency room at the Coria del Río health center and the Virgen del Rocío hospital before she finally went to the doctors. suspected that the West Nile virus was causing the symptoms. A “very painful” lumbar puncture finally confirmed it.
Amidst chants such as “No more deaths, vaccines now” or “Board of Directors, listen, listen to our struggle”, voices were raised to demand help for more and more people: “Let the politicians come to this area for a few days and tell us,” said the spokesperson for the convocation platform, Juan José Sánchez, who stressed that this group has begun the process of becoming an association as soon as possible, “because they are not going to tire us, and we are going to continue fighting.
The worst epidemic since 2007
The anger and feeling of abandonment of the neighbors is justified by the fact that this year the worst outbreak of the West Nile virus is occurring in Seville since 2007 in terms of the number of people affected. Cases are occurring throughout the province and the virus has already caused five deaths in Andalusia, all in Seville.
In Andalusia alone there are more than 61 cases, although for it to be considered as such a double positive must be given: at the hospital where each person is admitted and at the Virgen de las Nieves Hospital in Granada, where the reference laboratory for counting cases is located.
The Ministry of Health assures that the cases of death have occurred in people “with previous pathologies”. However, some affected people, such as the son of an 86-year-old woman who died in August in La Puebla del Río, do not share this observation: he only took “half a blood pressure pill a day”, he says. On this occasion, the people affected are not only elderly people. There are also documented cases in a two-year-old boy and a 26-year-old girl, both in Coria del Río.
Where is the virus?
This Monday, September 2, the Ministry of Health and Consumption of the Government of Andalusia confirmed that in the last week eight new cases have been registered in two people from Coria del Río, two from Utrera, one in Dos Hermanas, one person from Gelves, one person from Guillena and another from San Juan de Aznalfarache. Of these cases, five have already been discharged.
The presence of the virus has also been detected in captures made in the Sevillian municipalities of Almensilla, Bollullos de la Mitación, Gelves, Los Palacios and Villafranca, Villamanrique de la Condesa; in the Cádiz municipalities of Bárbate, Benalup, Casa Viejas and Tarifa; as well as in Malaga, and in mosquitoes collected in a trap located in the Marismas del Odiel Natural Park, in the municipality of Huelva.
Likewise, it has been detected in four horses: one in the Cadiz municipality of Ubrique, one in Constantina, one in El Coronil and another in Palomares del Río; the latter three in the province of Seville.
First case, in 2004
West Nile virus is a notifiable disease (NDD) in Spain since 2015, transmitted by the infected female of the common mosquito of the genus “Culex” and which feeds on bird blood. Humans and equines (horses, donkeys) are the mammalian species most susceptible to this disease.
It has been known to circulate in some areas for years, but the first “official” case was known in 2010. However, experts have analyzed a previous infection and have come to the conclusion that a resident of Badajoz contracted the disease for the first time in 2004.
In 2021, there were six cases in Seville and in 2022, two were diagnosed in Andalusia and two in Catalonia. For the first time, the West Nile virus appeared in Tarragona and Córdoba. Last year, 21 positive cases were detected, of which 14 were hospitalized and three died.
Eight out of ten infections are asymptomatic. They mainly suffer from fever and myalgia and in less than 1% of infected people, it is complicated by neurological manifestations such as meningitis, encephalitis or flaccid paralysis. Among them, 10% could die.
The risk increases with age and in people who drink alcohol excessively, suffer from diabetes, chronic kidney or cardiovascular disease, hypertension, cancer or immunosuppression. This can leave consequences between 30 and 60% of the time.
Acts
In an attempt to mitigate its effects, the affected municipalities, even before the first cases were known at the beginning of the summer, carried out fumigation activities using their local budgets, although the Provincial Council of Seville approved in July a budget item of one million euros to help them in this regard.
Through urgent concessions, fumigations are carried out, among other things, on both banks of the Guadalquivir and in key points of the rice fields. However, the request of the affected municipalities and the Provincial Council itself is to create a virus control table that works all year round, following the model of the province of Huelva, where the provincial body has been carrying out fumigations since winter, attacking the larvae and preventing the growth of the mosquito in specific places, such as the marshes distributed throughout the province.
For his part, the President of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno, announced that from the autumn, the Andalusian Government will “grease the machine even more” in terms of collaboration with the municipalities of Huelva, Seville and Cádiz and the municipalities affected by the Nile virus so that “everyone knows clearly what we have to do and we do everything efficiently and try to make the impact of the mosquito less.” Regarding the incidence of the virus, Moreno, “with the data from doctors,” stressed that “the majority of infections are asymptomatic,” which is why he sent a message of “calm.”
This was announced in an interview on Canal Sur Radio in the last part of his tour in China to close investments for the community. In this interview, Moreno acknowledged that the West Nile virus is a disease that “concerns me” and that “we will try to deploy all our efforts in terms of human and material resources so that, throughout the month of September, “it is a difficult month” with mosquito infection, prevent it for next year.
