One day they said 10. The next, another association spoke of 14. Now the Defense Ministry admits 24.
The military personnel deployed in Ceuta since late July began reporting itching, skin lesions, sleepless nights. Scabies, the Army finally confirmed: scabies caused by a microscopic mite that burrows under the skin and lays eggs there. Of the 24 cases, only two predate the large-scale arrival of migrants in the autonomous city. The other 22 appeared afterward, during the weeks in which the soldiers guarded the security deployment.
The Defense Ministry denies it with a single sentence: scabies is common in humid areas and has no relation to contact with migrants. But the Union of Troop Military Personnel had already pointed out that the positive cases were concentrated in the same company of the Group of Regulars n° 54, and the Association of Troops and Sailors is demanding to know whether there is a real epidemiological link between the cases. As the figures change from one statement to the next, the military personnel continue waiting for a clear protocol telling them whether they are facing an outbreak or a coincidence that repeats itself 24 times.
