La Rambla and Montalbán, calm under the cloud of the West Nile virus

In these days of September, the Gardens of Andalusia are closed at all doors and those who miss it look up at the bars and find empty the ponds through which the water flowed. The hospitable village of potters thus closes the door to the guest it would never have wanted: the mosquito that transmits the Nile virus and keeps one of its inhabitants in the hospital. Queen Sofia Hospitalalthough with the prognosis that he will recover.

Any new and somewhat unknown disease, and even more so if it comes from an insect that bites without being seen, can cause concern, but in the late summer morning, La Rambla is a quiet place. Everyone knows what is happening, but it affects few people. It is a market day and next to the fairground there is a group of people enjoying the breakfast outdoors. “It doesn’t scare me, just like Covid,” says Conchi Polonio, who admits, however, that there may be “some concern.”

Almost all the inhabitants of La Rambla, just over 7,500 people, know what happened and Conchi Polonio knows it personally: “I know the woman who is sick, because she went to school with me.” Precautions include the most basic things like repellents and mosquito nets, which in your case are not new, because you have them all year round.

The rest is a normal life, because the City Hall has fumigated the parks and emptied the places of stagnant waterwhere the mosquito can live and reproduce. There would be a danger. Some neighbors report some fountains, already a few kilometers from the city center.

The pharmacist Susana Aguilar He had to listen and talk a lot about West Nile virus in his institution. “I ordered a table shipment of repellents against mosquitoes. Of all kinds, between children and adults,” he says. Many people who have heard about the famous virus have been there and ordered so many products that they had to order a few more.

Those who do it, he explains, are of all kinds, from children and adults to rural people, because in the agriculture They work outdoors and are used to mosquitoes. His regular patients are divided: “There are people who are afraid and others say no, but there can always be others. worriedthat occur when you barely notice a to sting“.

Just in case the repellents, which are always the same as every year, are already ready and waiting for whoever asks for them, because, as you remember, mosquitoes are part of the are from La Rambla. Another thing is that they carry the famous West Nile virus. “There have been summers with many bites, but this summer so far has been calm,” he says.

The City Hall opens its doors on the Plaza de la Constitución, which is also modified. There is a monument that commemorates the League of La Rambla, an alliance of Andalusian municipalities that supported the Emperor Charles V during the rebellion of the Communards, and around it there was a fountain with water that is now empty and that the workers are cleaning. Do not leave any place where mosquitoes that transmit the disease can develop.

The mayor, Jorge Jimeneztells how the measures were taken from the first moment and published on one side. The Department of Health of the Government of Andalusia indicated a series of measures, such as cutting off the water from the fountains and carrying out fumigations, and this was done, because in the early hours of Wednesday there were workers with products that kill insects. “What is recommended is to fumigate four weeks in a row and then every fortnight,” he summarizes.

The mayors of the small towns are at street level and confirm what the Rambleños have said and will continue to say: “People are doing well and it seems that in the city there is no alarm“You have to be careful with private pools, but if someone has noticed that the water has turned green and that this can facilitate the growth of small organisms, they should go to the City Hall and say so. He is following the case of the hospitalized woman, knows that she can now communicate with her family and, like the rest of the neighbors, is waiting for the moment when she will be released.

Mosquito nets

La Rambla is not a place with a river, and the streams that flowed in other times, this time do not have water between them. drought and the harsh summer. The city council is monitoring fecal water and insists on mosquito nets so that people can be calm at home.

In the same Plaza de la Constitución, two elderly people are enjoying the morning and one of them confesses that she has not even heard of the West Nile virus. A woman enters the conversation who prefers not to say her name, but assures that the situation is “normal”, since repellents must be kept on hand all summer against mosquitoes, whether they are of the type or not. disease who has already become famous.

There is also no unusual activity noted in the health centerwhere patients keep coming with their usual questions. “I don’t even watch much TV and I don’t know anything about West Nile virus. The only thing I worry about is my son,” says a woman with a small child who stands up at that moment when she sees the doctor’s door open to the waiting woman.

“I didn’t even flinch, whatever they want can happen, we had already crossed the Covid“, says Ángel Expósito Doblas while waiting for the time to go to the consultation. And he is precisely the one who has the most to fear, because he is one of those people who, without knowing why, have to live with insect bites more than others, who live without barely knowing them: “My wife gets bitten by all the insects.” mosquitoes, but none for me.

What the residents of La Rambla say can be interpreted as saying that they consider the West Nile virus to be a summer cloudperhaps a little greyer and more disturbing than those of evolution, but not ones to be too afraid of. Clouds can of course be big, and the one that is now hiding without being so frightening extends for three kilometers to the southwest, up to Montalban from Cordoba, a few minutes on a road between olive trees and industrial areas.

If in La Rambla there is only a little concern, in Montalbán you feel that it is something that does not happen there. And the truth is that there is something: the name of the city has been mentioned in all the reports of the Health advice who have detected not only the presence of people who have contracted the disease through bites, but rather the presence of the mosquito in the analyses carried out on the water. There is nothing more and some are calling for caution.

Montalbán is quiet at noon, when home care workers accompany the elderly on their walk. They talk in the Andalusia Squarea few meters from the town hall and the parish of Santa María de Gracia, a modern temple that replaced the old church when it was in ruins. “There are no cases here,” says María José Marín, one of the women speaking, who confirms that there is no fear among the population.

Like others, and even more so if you have contact with elderly people, you have listened to the instructions on how to avoid puddles Where water may accumulate, wear long-sleeved clothing if possible and use mosquito repellent.

The mayor, Miguel Ruz, insists that it is the Department of Health of the Junta de Andalucía that must take the measures, because the responsibility lies with them, and what the City Council does is transmit it to the citizens. “There is a protection plan against the Nile virus, and from there, the City Council and the Local police “They make recommendations,” he explains. And that’s what all the neighbors know, from avoiding puddles to renewing water for livestock. “All this is completely normal and natural,” he concludes.

And the truth is that the people of Montalbán agree with him. Otherwise, people live their lives in complete normality. The summer has passed with the Fair and its activities, the municipal swimming poolwhich had already reached its natural end of season in September, and the residents of Montalba only found out that there was a mosquito that transmits the disease when the Ministry of Health reported it.

During the week, the most visible people at midday arrival are the elderly, who are enjoying a game or spending time with friends. There is quite an atmosphere at the Peña Cultural Flamenca Manolo Caracolone of the most traditional in the province of Cordoba. Your president, Paco Basconproudly shows the facilities and the room where almost two hundred people can enter and serves while chatting with those who come to have a glass of wine or play dominoes.

The concern is not too great, and this is confirmed. Juan Chanfrut Ruz says that “there will be those who will be and those who will not be.” concernedbut the most normal thing is that no. The jets that came out on the Plaza de Andalusia are no longer there, for example, and lead to a fountain a little far away, where there are greenbut Montalbán is calm, perhaps waiting for the heat and humidity of September to leave and with them a cloud that no one looks at so much.