By 1 September this year, Macedonia had recorded 56 cases of West Nile fever and seven deaths. For comparison: over the previous 15 years, around ten deaths in total were recorded. So nearly as many as in a decade and a half - in a few months.

About 20 patients are hospitalised at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases. The Food and Veterinary Agency had earlier reported infected birds as well, one of them found near the Drama Theatre in Karpoš. Not on some outskirts - in the middle of the city.

The two answers

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, asked about this in Gevgelija, said the year is above average for infections with this virus across Europe and that the challenge is not specific to Macedonia. He mentioned Italy and Spain, where, he said, the dead are counted in the hundreds.

On mosquito spraying he was even more direct: "We checked the information and based on what I have, all municipalities have completed their activities within the regular protocol. I could not say that anyone failed to do it or neglected the obligation."

The opposition SDSM claims the opposite - that Macedonia ranks first in Europe for cases relative to population, ahead of Italy, Greece and Romania, and that the government only reacts once a crisis escalates. They also pointed at Skopje mayor Orce Gjorgjievski, claiming he was late with the spraying.

What is missing from both statements

Notice what each side does with the number. The government places it in a European context, where Italy's and Spain's absolute figures make ours look small. The opposition divides it by the population, where the same number puts us at the top. Neither is a lie - they are two ways of looking at the same data point, and each side picks the one that suits it.

What neither side says is more concrete: when exactly was the spraying done, in which municipalities, with what agent and how many times. "All municipalities have completed their activities within the regular protocol" is a sentence without a single date in it. If the protocol is complete and seven people are dead, then the question is not whether the protocol was followed - the question is whether the protocol is worth anything at all.

The mosquito does not read statements. It breeds in standing water, and standing water exists wherever somebody failed to drain it. That is local, mechanical, boring work with no press conference attached. Which is exactly why it gets postponed every year until the moment it is already counting the dead.