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Fears are growing over the spread of the deadly West Nile virus after two more people in Spain died after being bitten by mosquitoes.
Five victims have succumbed to the West Nile virus since the beginning of the year in the Seville region.
The last two deceased lived in Coria del Río, on the banks of the Guadalquivir River, where another person died earlier this year. It is known that one of them was a 71-year-old man who was admitted to intensive care in a hospital in Seville.
The regional government of Andalusia said overnight it had identified ten new cases of the disease, raising concerns in the area.
On July 19, Granada Romero Ruiz’s family confirmed that the 86-year-old woman had lost her fight for life at the Virgen del Río Hospital in Seville after her admission on July 11 and the confirmation that she had the West Nile virus.
Fears are mounting over the spread of the deadly West Nile virus after two more people died in Spain after being bitten by mosquitoes (file image)
On July 19, the family of Granada Romero Ruiz (pictured) confirmed that the 86-year-old woman had lost her fight for life at the Virgen del Río Hospital in Seville following her admission on July 11 and confirmation that she had the West Nile virus.
Her son Antonio Pineda said at the time that she was in perfect health before being bitten by a mosquito and claimed her death could have been avoided if the areas near her home in La Puebla del Río, a half-hour drive south of Seville, had been properly fumigated.
The other two victims were from the towns of Dos Hermanos and Coria del Río.
British tourists travelling to Spain have been warned about the deadly West Nile virus for the past few years.
Infectious disease expert Pablo Barreiro warned after a deadly outbreak in Seville in 2020 claimed the lives of two people and sent eight others to intensive care in hospitals that it could spread across Spain.
He said: ‘Only two to five percent of cases show symptoms.
‘It is a disease that can very easily go unnoticed.’
Last month, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) sounded the alarm, with its director Andrea Ammon saying: “Europe is already seeing how climate change is creating more favourable conditions for invasive mosquitoes to spread into previously unaffected areas and infect more people with diseases like dengue.
‘Increased international travel from countries where dengue is endemic will also increase the risk of imported cases and, inevitably, also the risk of local outbreaks.’
The West Nile virus, transmitted by the Culex mosquito, first arrived in Spain in 2004 and horses were the most affected.
Older people and those with underlying health conditions such as diabetes and cancer are most at risk, but it can cause meningitis in children.
Wetlands and swimming pools in rural areas have been identified as the places where mosquitoes carrying the virus are most likely to be found.
The Puebla del Río City Council, in a statement published last month after Granada’s death in which she was shown enjoying a beer and looking healthy just a few weeks before falling ill, said: ‘We deeply regret the death of Granada, affected by the West Nile virus.
“We will work tirelessly to ensure that all public providers make the maximum effort to combat this virus and that there is a permanent strategy to combat mosquitoes.”
In recent times, ECDC has reported 713 cases of local transmission of West Nile virus in nine different European countries – a staggering figure that resulted in the tragic loss of 67 lives and allowed the virus to spread to 22 new previously unaffected regions.
Last year, the main hotspots of the deadly virus were Italy, Greece, Romania, Hungary and Spain.