Legionella detected in hotel in Malaga

Local health authorities closed down the spa facilities of a hotel in Estepona, Malaga, yesterday after strands of the the Legionella bacteria were detected in two showers.

Legionella thrives in a warm, moist environments such as water pipes or air-conditioning systems in large buildings. Some types of legionella bacteria cause the type of pneumonia called Legionaires Disease while others are less agressive and cause an illness known as Pontiac fever that heals on its own and produces symptoms similar to flu. The disease is spread by inhaling contaminated water droplets.

It is quite common for legionella to be a problem in Spain, especially during the Summer months. Just four years ago there was a massive outbreak in Murcia, where over 700 people were infected by the bacteria, of whom 315 were diagnosed with legionnaires’ disease and one person died. Over two thirds people affected were over fifty. Every Summer the bacteria is detected somewhere in Spain, but usually measures are taken before anyone is infected.

Yesterday the Malagan authorities said they were closing down the spa facilities in the Hotel H10 Estepona Palace as a precautionary measure after legionella was detected in two showers during routine tests. The local authorities stressed that nobody had been infected but that the spa would remained closed until further checks had been carried out once the systems had been disinfected.

The incubation period for legionnaires disease is two to ten days. The first symptoms include loss of appetite, headache, muscle and stomach ache, diarrhea, and a dry cough. After a few days, pneumonia follows with high fever, chills, sleepiness, and coughing up of phlegm. If untreated, the pneumonia gets worse, so anyone who has stayed in the Estepona Palace hotel in the last couple of weeks is advised to consult their doctor should any of the above symptoms become apparant.

Related:
Hotels in Estepona
Hotels in the Costa del Sol

Renewable energy plan in Spain

This weekend the Spanish government approved a new national energy plan designed to promote the use of renewable energy sources in Spain and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. The Vice-President announced the 23-billion euro plan on Friday and said the the government's objective was for 12.1 percent of Spain's overall energy needs and 30.3 percent of total electricity consumption to be met by renewable energy sources by 2010.

Fernandez de la Vega said the government's focus on renewable "clean" energy sources would reduce Spain's dependence on oil imports and would be one step further to fulfilling the Kyoto Protocol on reduction of greenhouse gases and towards the phasing out of the use of nuclear energy in Spain. The plan puts the emphasis on renewable energy sources such as wind (raising the 13,000 MW target for the capacity of wind-powered electricity plants set by the previous government,to 20,155 MW), solar energy, biofuels and hydroelectricity.

The government has called on the energy industry to finance 77 percent of the overall cost of the renewable energy plan, and other private sector industries (banking, construction and technology) to contribute 20 percent. The rest of the investment will come from public money. Tax incentives will be offered for the use of ecologically sound fuel and for the installation of plants generation electricity with renewable energy sources.

Representatives from Greenpeace and Ecologistas en Acción acknowledged this weekend the "important advances" of the new renewable energy plan with respect to the plan implemented by the previous Spanish government, but they said it was still insufficient. The Energy spokeswoman for Greenpeace in Spain said that her organisation was lobbying for an increase in the electricity targets set for wind power farms and solar energy. Greenpeace would also like the Spanish government to join other governments in the promotion of offshore electricity-generating wind farms, which for some reason are still not included in the new plan.

Forest fires in Spain: Galicia

Two of the main themes to regularly make the news here all Summer have been the drought in Spain and the forest fires, both directly related of course. This week the fires have hit Galicia, where yesterday firefighters were battling to put out 35 blazes, 8 of which were serious.

The president of Galicia has called an extraordinary meeting with regional and national political representatives this morning to discuss emergency measures. Meanwhile, Spain has sent two firefighting planes to Galicia's neighbour Portugal, to help extinguish fires there.

Galicia has become more and more popular as a tourist destination among Spaniards looking for beautiful scenery and cooler Summer temperatures and rural tourism has thrived there in recent years, boosting the regional economy. But paradoxically the rise in the number of tourists visiting Galicia may have made the region much more vulnerable to forest fires, with visitors not taking enough care when putting out fires, candles and barbecues, throwing lighted cigarette butts on the forest floor etc or just starting fires for the hell of it. Authorities claim that no less than 90 percent of all fires have been started deliberately by arsonists. Crazy.

According to information given by the regional department in charge of rural environmental care, Ourense has been hit worst by the spread of forest fires in Galicia this week, with 19 blazes, followed by Pontevedra (12) and A Coruña (7). So far this month 13,368 hectares of land has been destroyed by fires in the region, not including the fires which are blazing at the moment.

Record year for tourism in Spain

Figures just released show that the number of tourists coming to Spain has reached an all-time high this year. However, the overall balance for the Spanish economy is not as positive as it should be. According the the statistics, this year's tourists spend less and stay for shorter periods than in previous years.

A record 31 million foreign tourists visited Spain between January and July this year, a rise of 6.1 percent compared to the same period in 2004. Last month Spain received 7.4 million international tourists.

Catalonia was the most popular destination in Spain for international tourists in July, and 2.2 million visitors spent a holiday in the Costa Brava or in the mountains inland. The second most popular destination is the Balearic Islands, followed by the Canary Islands, Andalucia (Costa del Sol), Valencian Region (Costa Blanca) and Madrid, in that order.

As usual the UK was the country which sent the most tourists to Spain in July (9.1 percent), followed by Germany (5.6 percent ), France (4.9 percent) and Italy (1.7 percent).

Related
Hotels in Spain
Restaurants in Spain
Paradors in Spain
Beautiful places in Spain

Zara

According to BusinessWeek's yearly ranking of the world's biggest brands, the Spanish clothes brand Zara is worth more than Levi's, Armani and Hermes. For the first time ever Zara is included in the list of 100 best brands, coming in at number 77, and valued at 3,730 million dollars. Levi's is ranked 96 and Armani 95.

Zara is one of over a hundred subsidiaries owned by holding company Inditex, founded by Amancio Ortega who is possibly Spain's most successful (but least known) self-made entrepreneurs.

Ortega was born in La Coruña, Galicia, into a humble family and he started working in a shirt-making factory when he was just 14 in 1951. In the 1960s he opened his first textile company, Goa, which made bathrobes, and in 1975 he opened the first Zara store selling clothes for men, women and children. From then on then his business went from strength to strength. Today Zara is one of several trademarks owned by Inditex.

Ortega leads a quiet life. So much so that most Spaniards would not be able to tell you the name of the owner of one of the world's top fashion brands. He never gives interviews, very rarely appears in public and, when he does, refuses to wear a tie. The first time a photo of him ever appeared in the Spanish press was in 2001 just before Inditex was listed in the Spanish stock market (its shares sold out the day it went public, making it one of the most successful IPOs in Spanish stock market history). Amancio Ortega still lives in his native Galicia, home also to the headquarters of Zara and Inditex.

In 1988 the first Zara store was opened outside Spain (in Portugal). Over the past 6 years Zara has expanded to no less than 54 countries, growing into network of 745 stores always set in the commercial centre of each town. A standard joke in Spain is that when you travel to a major city abroad don't bother taking a map. Just look for Zara and then you'll know exactly where you are - right in the city center!

Cancer in Spain

Yesterday Elena Salgado, Spain's Health Minister, announced a new government strategy to fight the growing number of cancer cases in this country. She presented a report called "The Situation of Cancer in Spain" revealing worrying statistics about the continuing upward trend. According to the report one in every three Spanish men and one in every five Spanish women will suffer some type of cancer during their lives. Over half are expected to survive their cancer for at least five years.

The report estimates that in recent years 162,000 new cases of cancer have been diagnosed in Spain each year. Colorectal, Lung and Breast cancers are the most common types of cancer among the Spanish population (in that order).

Yesterday Minister Salgado underlined the relationship between the increase in cancer and the increase in smoking and drinking alcohol. The number of cases of lung cancer among women has risen in recent year, coinciding with a rise in the number of female smokers. And the number of male deaths from throat and bladder cancer in Spain is above the European average, which could be linked to higher rates of tobacco and alcohol consumption in Spain with respect to other European countries. Cancer is the main cause of death among Spanish men (with lung cancer claiming the most lives) and the second major cause among Spanish women.

Although breast cancer continues to be the most death-causing cancer among Spanish women, the report does give some hope to women breast cancer suffurers. During the last 10 years the death rate from this type of cancer has gone down at an annual rate of 1.4 percent, and today 78 percent of women who suffer from breast cancer are expected to live for more than five years.

The Minister said that her department would be using the figures released yesterday to establish a national strategy to fight cancer which will be presented to the public towards the end of the year. The strategy will be based on information designed to facilitate early detection and prevention of the disease.

Spanish troops killed in Afghanistan helicopter crash

Spain's president Rodriguez Zapatero has broken off his Summer holiday and is on his way back to Madrid following the crash of a NATO Cougar helicopter in Afghanistan this morning in which 17 Spanish soldiers were killed.

Although Major Andrew Elmes, a spokesman for the international security assistance force in Kabul, said the cause of the crash and the emergency landing was believed to be mechanical failure, Spain's Minister of Defence, José Bono, told Spanish reporters today that the possibility that the accident had been caused by an "external attack" had still not been discarded.

According to Bono, in the first instance everyone thought it had been a simple accident, but "after studying a photo, we have observed that although the surrounding area is very mountainous, the impact of the crash occured over a flat area which is why we can not discard, for the moment, the possibility of an external attack".

The Defence Minister has announced his intention to travel to Afghanistan this afternoon and to oversee identification and repatriation of the bodies, presumably to avoid any repetition of the confusion and mistakes which led to misidentification of a number of the soldiers killed in 2003, when a plane bringing 62 Spanish peacekeeping troops home from Afghanistan crashed in Turkey, killing everybody on board.

Volcanic activity in the Canary Islands

Spanish scientists monitoring volcanic activity in the Canary Islands have registered a definite increase in the number of seismic tremors registered in Tenerife over the past year. The location of the tremors, in the north-east of the Island, reveal that the volcanic behaviour has changed, although the scientists say it is too soon to say exactly how.

The volcanologists, speaking in a UIMP University Summer course on natural risks, said that unlike other kinds of natural disasters, volcanoes always give ample warning before an eruption. But the main problem they face in trying to work out exactly what the changes in Tenerife mean, is that in order to make accurate predictions, you need to be able to compare activity with records extending over a period of hundreds of years. And activity in the Teide volcano began to be monitored only 500 years ago "just one breath in the life of a volcano", according to the scientists.

Alicia Felpeto, volcanologist of the Jaume Almera Earth Science Institute said she believed she would see at least one volcano eruption in the Canary Islands during her lifetime.

The last time a volcano erupted in the Canary Islands was in 1971 when Teneguía erupted on the island La Palma. It was a very calm eruption which spread over two months with no major explosions involved.

As far as Tenerife is concerned, statistics show that the Island registers an eruption in one of its volcanoes once every hundred years. The biggest volcano in Tenerife, El Teide, has not erupted for 1,250 years.

The rise in seismic activity over the past year or so has led local authorities to make improvements to the systems of volcano surveillance on the Island. More advanced instruments will help scientists to understand better what the recent changes may mean.

Falling stars over Spain

This evening people in Spain should be able to witness a host of falling stars shooting across the night sky.

Infact a falling or shooting star is not really a star at all. When meteoroids enter into the Earth's atmosphere they burn up. The burning tail produces the falling star effect that we see lighting up the night sky.

The Perseid meteor shower occurs around this time of year when the Earth and Comet Swift-Tuttle cross, and the rate at which the meteors fall depends on where Comet Swift-Tuttle is in relation to the Earth. Apparantly, the comet has a ring of debris in its orbit, and when this debris enter's Earth's atmosphere, the meteor shower starts. The nearer the Comet is to Earth, the greater the intensity of the shower and number of falling stars.

According to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, the best time to look for the shower tonight is in the early hours of the morning, between midnight and five a.m., when the Perseo constellation is at the highest point of the horizon. The Canary Astrophysics Institute advises us to observe the phenomenon from an open space (beach, terrace, field....) as far away as possible from town lights. We are advised to look towards the horizon and not use telescopes, because the wider the field of vision the better.

Apparantly this year the shower's intenstity will be greater than last year, so get your wishes ready!!

People wanting to buy property in Spain

We have received a message from Televisionary, an independent TV production company based in the UK and looking for contributors for a new TV series. According to the email, it is not just another overseas property programme. The key is to find preferably a couple where one partner has serious reservations about buying a home abroad, and we would tackle these issues during the programme.

Anyone who is in that situation and would like to participate in the programme is asked to contact Anna Fox, Televisionary, Direct line: 01548 830093, Fax: 01548 831551
anna@televisionary.co.uk

See the brief about what the programme organisers are looking for below:

What's stopping YOU from buying abroad?
A new TV show is here to help make your dream come true.
Is something stopping you from turning your dream of a place in the sun into reality? Perhaps it's a fear of being away from friends and family, not being able to speak the language, a dislike of foreign food or concern about driving on the other side of the road. Whatever your fear, if this is you, this new TV show wants to hear from you.

We'll take you to your country of choice and advise you on locations, property, purchase process etc? We'll also help you confront your fears.

We'd particularly like to hear from couples where one of you is keen to buy abroad and one of you isn't - and if that keen partner is you, please don't tell your other half you're contacting us....the surprise trip is all part
of the show!

We will be filming abroad during the months of August, September, October and November this year and want to hear from people with a genuine dream - who are being held back by genuine fears.

If you would like to take part then please contact Anna Fox on 01548 830093 or email Anna@televisionary.co.uk or write to Anna Fox, Televisionary, 10 New Mills, Modbury, Devon PL21 0TP.

Don't forget to include your daytime contact number and let us know where
your dream property might be.

Buying a house in Spain
Properties for sale in Spain
Properties for rent in Spain

Spanish Mediterranean coast invaded by jellyfish

At this time of year it is quite common to see the odd jellyfish floating on the water along the Spanish costas and as September approaches the number usually increases. But this year a massive plague of jelly fish is affecting Spain's most popular resorts, and some beaches are so full of the floating animals that holidaymakers, sweating from the unusually high temperatures this Summer, are unable to have a pleasant swim in the cool sea.

During this period last year, red cross stations set on Spanish beaches had treated just 6 bathers with jellyfish stings. So far this August, 127 have been treated and according the El Pais, some beaches have had to raise the red or amber flag this weekend. A red flag means bathing is forbidden, and a yellow flag means bathers are advised not to bathe. Usually the flags are used when winds create waves and currents which can drag swimmers out to sea.

Ecologists have warned that the sheer size of the jellyfish invasion this year is an indication of degradation and imbalance in the ecosystem of the Mediterranean Ocean. Jellyfish are 95 percent water. They feed on plancton, thrive in warm waters, and are eaten by marine reptiles such as turtles. According to marine biologists, global warming favours the proliferation of animals like jellyfish.

The drought in Spain this year has meant that less cool river water has reached the sea and as a consequence, the temperature of the sea around the Spanish costas has risen, which makes it easier for jellyfish to reproduce. Meanwhile, the rise in population along the Mediterranean, as more and more people choose to buy property near the sea, has caused an increase in residual waters which are poured into the sea, creating an excess in certain nutrients which the jellyfish feed on. Finally, more than 25,000 sea turtles are trapped in illegal fishing nets each year, to such an extent that all kinds of sea turtles are now considered to be in danger of extinction. And there are less and less around to challenge the thriving community of Mediterranean jellyfish.

Ecologists claim that over the past 5-10 years there has been a clear drop in the number and variety of fish swimming in the Mediterranean because of overfishing and illegal fishing practices. And that unless measures are taken to readdress the current situation, massive invasions of jellyfish along the Spanish costas will become more and more common in the future.

Forest fires continue to rage accross Spain

As the drought in Spain continues, the number of forest fires increases and according to government figures released yesterday so far this year Spain has registered 3,500 more forest fires than during the whole of 2004.

The Ministry of Environment announced that the number of big forest fires has risen to 17 - the highest figure for a decade - but that the extent of land affected by the fires was significantly lower between January and July this year compared to the same period last (in 2004 90,000 hectares were affected by fires and this year, 20,000).

Meanwhile two more people have lost their lives fighting fires in Avila and Ourense respectively this weekend. In Avila a young man died yesterday while helping to extinguish a fire in Casavieja, Avila, and a pilot died when his firefighting plane crashed as he flew it over a forest fire in Medeiros, Ourense.

Regional authorities said yesterday they suspected that another fire which started last Wednesday in the province of Leon and has so far destroyed 2,200 hectares of woodlands had been started deliberately. High temperatures of above 40º made the task of firefighters even more difficult in Leon as the heatwave forecast to hit Spain this weekend started to make itself felt.

Over the next few days temperatures are expected to rise further and may reach 45º in some southern areas of Spain.

Spanish Defence Ministry suspends civil guards

Following conversations with President Rodriguez Zapatero yesterday, Spain's Minister of Defence announced the suspension of all the civil guards involved in the incident last week in which a man died allegedly as a result of the beating he received at the hands of the civil guard police in Roquetas de Mar.

Meanwhile more witnesses came forward claiming to have witnessed the beating in which Juan Martínez Galdeano, a farm labourer, was allegedly kicked and punched by at least four guards.

The Defence Ministry has suspended 8 of the 9 civil guards involved in the incident. The ninth is still a cadet and cannot be suspended. The reason given for the sanction is "abusing responsibility and carrying out inhumane, degrading, discriminatory or humilliating practices on people being held in police custody".

Rodriguez Zapatero also had a telephone conversation yesterday with Spain's Interior Minister who had already sanctioned the lieutenant of Roqueta's civil guard for "showing behaviour seriously contrary to the discipline, service or dignity of his institution". Following his conversation with the President, José Antonio Alonso announced that he would appear before congress this month as soon as the investigation being held is able to determine exactly what happened in the time leading up to the man's death.

The lawyer of all nine civil guards claimed this morning that his clients were being "crucified" before trial.

Spanish police violence

The burial of the man who died last week while being held in custody by Spanish civil guard police in Roquetas de Mar (Almeria) is due to be held this morning.

Headlines in the Spanish press have been dominated by the death of Juan Martinez Galdeano who had gone to the police station to seek protection from people who were chasing him following a traffic incident he had been involved in. According to police reports, Martinez Galdeano became violent when members of the civil guard police tried to perform a breathalyser test and was restrained and then arrested by police.

Images from a camara in the courtyard of the police station apparantly show part of the struggle between Martinez Galdeano, including use of two kinds of non-reglamentary police truncheons, one of which gives electric shocks. And the forense report states that the hands and feet of the victim had been tied before his death. Nine policemen have been summoned to declare before the judge appointed to lead an independent investigation into the incident, and the Civil Guard General Direction yesterday suspended the lieutenant of the police station where the incident took place.

According to reports in the Spanish press, this is not the first time the suspended lieutenant, seen in the camara images striking the victim with an electric truncheon, has been accused of using excessive violence.

Spain's vice president yesterday promised a full investigation into the incident and said that respect of human rights remained a core priority of the Socialist government. She said that the government's pulse "would not tremble" if the results of the investigation indicated need for further reform within the civil guard police force.

Salmonella in Spain

Regional health authorities in Spain have confirmed today that more than 500 people are affected by the current outbreak of Salmonella in Spain. All of the people being treated seem to have been infected by pre-packed roast chicken. None of them are in a serious condition.

The outbreak is widespread and most regions in Spain have registered cases of patients with symptoms of salmonella. Symptoms of the bacterial infection include diarrhea, a high temperature and/or abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and most people recover without treatment

The Spanish food company Grupo Sada confirmed yesterday that it had found traces of the salmonella germ in one the sauce pipes of its factory in Toledo. All Sada chicken products have been withdrawn from the market and consumers who may have purchased a roast chicken are advised to throw it away.

Anyone suffering symptoms similar to those mentioned above is advised to go to his or her nearest health center to undergo a medical examination. The greatest risk from mild samonella is dehydration, especially in hot weather, so anyone suffering from diarrhea should drink lots of liquid. Outbreaks of salmonella in Spain are quite frequent during the Summer weeks, and are usually caused by contaminated chicken meat or eggs.

The worst affected region is Murcia with 140 cases, including 10 hospitalised patients, followed by Andalusia (108) and Castilla La Mancha (88) where 4 patients have been admitted to hospital. Other regions affected include Castilla y Leon, the Balearic Islands, Extremadura, Catalonia, the Valencia Region, Madrid and the Rioja.