West Nile virus: a “mild” disease, without medical treatments and very difficult to combat

2024-08-29 15:18:34

On the News, the news Spanish Television (TVE), I saw three news articles in a row: The mosquito that carried it a virus affecting the farms in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. A report about the Nile virus and the deaths began to come in the south. And other news about Spain donating vaccines for monkey monkey to Africa. What a panorama, WTF! 😬

And Spain suffered second largest outbreak of the aforementioned West Nile virus (technically it is correct West Nile virusVNO). It’s something we know will come. With the increase in temperatures, mosquitoes and various “bugs”. carrier disease They have arrived from the countries of the south of the world to Europe and to our country first since we are further south.

And with him they took disease that we do not know or only because of the information we receive about what is happening in other countries that suffer from them. The truth is that this virus is here and There have been five deaths in Andalusia.

This virus has many characteristics. Its effect on health is not very important, or all mosquitoes do not carry it (until now the mosquitoes found belong to the genus Culex), and all those bitten by mosquitoes will not get sick West Nile feverwhich is called a disease caused by a virus of the same name.

West Nile Valley fever (WNF) or West Nile fever (in English) is a zoonosis caused by strains of West Nile virus (WNV) that are spread by mosquitoes. This bug is fixed thanks to a baby-carrying buffalo. People and horses are considered the last hosts of the virus, so they do not transmit the disease, but yes they suffer from it.

Nile, dengue, zika, yellow fever

West Nile virus is from the family of flavivirus and they are classified as dangerous, including the coronavirus. dengueof zika (which, as you may recall, we had to study it eight years ago) or of those yellow fever. And there are no treatments or vaccines (only for horses that are susceptible to this disease).

At approx 80% of infections People have few or no symptoms. About 19% of people have fever, headache, vomiting or rash. It is said that this mosquito-borne disease is not very serious because just under 1% of those infected develop the disease. neurological symptomsincluding encephalitis and meningitis. But if that’s less than 1%, a tenth, around 10% of people who develop neurological symptoms die.

Grass other explanations for its high presence in the south from Spain: “higher temperatures last winter, which made it easier for mosquitoes to reproduce for longer and a greater number of females save time; the rains that occur in March and April – which occur with temperatures that are better than 20 degrees – and floods in the rice plants at the end of May.

The people most vulnerable to this disease are those over 60 years old and/or those with health problems such as cancer, diabetes or immunodeficiency.

difficult to fight

Birds are considered a reservoir of the disease, playing a very important role in the spread of the virus. it’s today difficult to control the spread of this virus Because birds travel between countries and those that have been bitten by mosquitoes can spread the disease around the world.

Mosquitoes themselves are impossible to control in their numbers and what has been explained, that they increasing temperatures They help their reproduction and expansion. Southern wetlands, with warm water, like the rice fields mentioned above, are ideal breeding grounds.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food offers strategies to deal with itbut they are most important for their effect on livestock. It’s not a virus that spreads between people, but… he doesn’t know if that can change.