A Texas man who survived prostate cancer now has to relearn to walk after he contracted the debilitating West Nile Virusfrom a mosquito.
Prospero Rangel, 78, from College Station, Texas, was bitten twice by a mosquito in early September, his daughter, Sara Salzer, told KBTX. He was working outside near his garage.
“He went inside and immediately he said he had to apply something on it because it was just so itchy,” Salzer told the outlet.
Although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says 8 out of 10 people who are infected with West Nile do not develop symptoms, Rangel shortly developed body aches, weakness, joint pain, and a fever.
Stock image of the Culex mosquito.
Getty
A week later, Rangel was admitted to the hospital. As Salzer tells us, initially, her father was paralyzed from the waist down.
Now, he’s having to relearn how to walk.
“We’ve been told that there are going to be some symptoms that are going to stay with him for a while,” she told KBTX. “We were even told that he may have to do outpatient therapy for the next year.”
As the CDC notes, being older than 60 and having cancer are risk factors for a more severe outcome from West Nile, which is transmitted by a bite from the Culex mosquito. And fatigue and weakness can last for months.
Rangel’s is the second confirmed case of West Nile in a human in Brazos County, KBTX reports.
Statewide, there have been 65 human cases of West Nile, according to the CDC, with the Texas Department of Health and Human Services identifying this year’s first case in July.
When the first Texas case was reported, the Health and Human Services Department noted that “heavy, widespread rain from Hurricane Beryl has left behind standing water that provides mosquitoes ample breeding ground to multiply.”
Residents are urged to “remove standing water. Emptying out water that accumulates in toys, tires, trash cans, buckets, clogged rain gutters and plant pots will deny mosquitoes a place to lay their eggs and reproduce.”
Other precautions include using insect repellent and covering skin to create a physical barrier from mosquitoes.
Earlier this year, more than 1,300 mosquito pools tested positive for West Nile across the state — nearly a 300% increase from the previous year — according to CBS News.
Last year, Texas saw 13 deaths from the disease.
