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West Nile Virus claims two more lives in Andalucía
The man and woman passed away this week in a hospital in Córdoba
West Nile Virus, a potentially deadly disease spread through mosquito bites, has been strengthening its grip on southern Spain all summer. This week, it claimed the lives of a man and a woman, both from Jaén, who passed away in the Reina Sofía hospital in Córdoba.
These latest fatalities bring the 2024 death toll to nine, the majority of which occurred in Sevilla.
As the situation deteriorates, other towns are taking measures and raising the risk level. Following the infection of an elderly woman in the Sevilla town of San Juan de Aznalfarache, this small hamlet has moved up to level 5. In neighbouring Córdoba, a 64-year-woman has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit after being admitted to hospital with serious symptoms last week.
Faced with this situation, the activist group ‘Fight Against the Nile Virus’ staged a demonstration on Monday September 16 in Dos Hermanas, Sevilla, where there has also been a fatality this summer.
The town hall of Villanueva de la Reina, where the deceased man lived, issued a statement on social media last week alerting the population to the risks associated with West Nile Virus and urging them to take preventative measures to avoid contact with mosquitoes.
After the presence of the disease was detected in two eagle chicks in La Carolina (Jaén), the first confirmed contagion in humans occurred in Linares, followed by two other infections in Ibros and Villanueva de la Reina.
In addition, the Department of Health and Consumption of the Andalusian Government has confirmed that a case of the virus was detected in a horse in the Jaén town of Arjona.
Up the coast in Alicante, scientists are experimenting with a number of techniques designed to humanely stop the spread of mosquitoes. One such measure, which involves increasing the amount of a naturally-occurring bacterium in the insect to make it sterile, could potentially be used on the common brown mosquito, which carries West Nile Virus.
Image: Freepik
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