43 registered cases. Four deaths. And a forecast that the peak is still ahead - in September.

The forecast came from Dimitar Apasiev, leader of Levica, in a Facebook post accusing the authorities of being late with mosquito spraying and of failing to clear the places where the insects breed.

"How come they didn't spray for mosquitoes in Skopje on time and were a month late, how come they're spraying with an unlicensed product for aerial spraying, how come they didn't clean the canals, ponds and silted marshes where the mosquitoes swarm," Apasiev wrote.

The city's paperwork

The documents sound harsher than the political rhetoric. Levica councillor Darja Mustafaoglu claims that the City of Skopje's own paperwork contradicts mayor Orce Gjorgjievski.

According to her, the 2026 annual programme for preventive pest control contains no treatment schedule, no season start date, no list of the products used, no measurable intervention criteria and no success indicators. The contract with the Skopje Public Health Centre for ground-level pest control was signed on 10 June, even though the technical specification calls for treatments starting earlier. The contract with the Skopje Aero Club dates from 23 April - and the larval season begins in March.

The most awkward part: according to Mustafaoglu, the documentation mostly counts hectares flown over. Not which product was used, in what quantity, at what dose per hectare, by what method, or to what effect. Levica has filed a freedom-of-information request with 14 questions about exactly those figures.

The numbers we do have

According to the latest weekly report from the Institute of Public Health, as of 18 August the country had registered 38 cases - 36 confirmed and two probable - along with four deaths. On 21 August, Health Minister Klekovski said the number had risen to 43.

Five new cases in three days. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control notes that West Nile virus transmission in Europe usually peaks in August and early September. So neither is Apasiev's forecast extreme, nor is 43 the final figure.

West Nile fever is transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. You don't vote against a mosquito - you spray, and you clean out the places where the eggs are laid. One of those is photogenic and gets counted in hectares. The other is filthy work in a drainage canal and never makes it into a press release.

Four families have already paid the difference between the two.