Cancer Survivor, 78, Relearning to Walk After Contracting West Nile from a Mosquito

Mar. 15, 2025

Prospero Rangel and his daughter, Sara Salzer.Photo:Rusty Surette/X

Rusty Surette/X

A Texas man who survived prostate cancer now has torelearn to walkafter he contracted the debilitatingWest Nile Virusfrom amosquito.

“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 theU.S. Centers for Disease Controlsays 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

Getty

A week later, Rangel was admitted to the hospital. As Salzer tells PEOPLE, 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.”

Rangel’s is the second confirmed case of West Nile in a human in Brazos County,KBTX reports.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Statewide, there have been 65 human cases of West Nile, according to theCDC, with theTexas Department of Health and Human Servicesidentifying 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 fromHurricane Berylhas left behind standing water that provides mosquitoes ample breeding ground to multiply.”

Texas counties with West Nile activity.Texas Department of State Health Services

Texas Department of State Health Services

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 toCBS News.

Last year, Texas saw 13 deaths from the disease.

source: people.com