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Date Published: 27/01/2025

Rare mosquito virus discovered for the first time ever in the south of Spain

The little-known Sindbis virus was detected in Malaga, Sevilla, Huelva and Cadiz

Mosquitoes are infamous for carrying a variety of unsavoury diseases, including malaria, Dengue Fever and West Nile Virus, which claimed the life of an elderly woman in Sevilla last summer. But now scientists have been shocked to discover specimens infected with the little-known Sindbis virus (VSIN) for the first time ever in southern Spain.

The Sindbis virus belongs to the Alphavirus genus and is transmitted primarily by mosquitoes of the Culex genus, or what we’d recognise as the common brown mosquito. This virus is zoonotic in nature, circulating mainly among birds, but it can occasionally affect humans when a mosquito infected with the virus feeds on the blood of a person.

Although the virus is usually asymptomatic, it can sometimes cause symptoms such as fever, skin irritation, joint pain and/or headache and outbreaks among people have been reported in South Africa and northern Europe.

Researchers from the Carlos III Health Institute and the Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC) captured 31,920 mosquitoes in western Andalucía and an examination found that the virus was present in a significant 11.92%. Moreover, it was present in five different species and detected in several locations in the provinces of Malaga, Sevilla, Huelva and Cadiz.

The majority of mosquitoes infected with the Sindbis virus were captured in Cadiz.

Also of interest: The cheesy reason mosquitoes find you irresistible

Image: Freepik

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