The potentially deadly West Nile virus has been found to be rapidly increasing among mosquitoes in southern Spain.
In its annual surveillance campaign, the Andalusian government detected a total of 49,629 pathogen-carrying mosquitoes in 26 different locations in the region from June 14 to November 2023.
The government is using a tiered system to assess infection risk.
In risk level 4, or high risk, municipalities, there is evidence that the virus has been circulating among humans or animals within 1.5 kilometers of a population center over the past two years.
The high-risk towns are all located in the departments of Cadiz, Córdoba, Huelva and Seville, and also include the municipalities of Tarifa, Lepe, Guervez, Utrera, Palomares del Río and Castilblanco de los Arroyos.
A list of Andalusia’s municipalities and their corresponding risk levels can be found on the junta’s website.
By the end of the season, 89 municipalities in Andalusia were at risk level 2 or above, indicating that the virus had been detected in animals in previous years.
In August 2023, an 84-year-old woman from Arroyo Molinos de Leon, Huelva, died from the viral West Nile fever, becoming the first and only death of the year.according to El Pais The woman had several pre-existing medical conditions.
On August 9, 2023, local media reported that a 72-year-old woman from the Valencian town of Pucol was infected with the virus and was discharged from hospital.
Although 80% of people infected with West Nile virus are asymptomatic, 20% develop West Nile fever, which causes fever, headache, nausea, disorientation, tremors, and, in severe cases, encephalitis. It can cause paralysis and death. to the World Health Organization.
The virus, first identified in Uganda in 1937, is transmitted by mosquitoes and carried by birds. It is also known to cause severe illness and death in horses.
Epidemics in horses were detected in the departments of Seville, Cádiz, Huelva, Córdoba and Málaga during summer and autumn, while in Jaén, Córdoba, outbreaks were detected in wild birds (mainly bird of prey chicks that had fallen from nests) in August and September. An outbreak was detected. And Seville.
However, the Andalusian Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs concluded that In a report released in December 2023, the military regime states clearly that there is no need to be alarmed.
“Continuing last week’s data trends, female population densities of potential vectors of infection are generally at low or very low levels,” the report said.
The junta decided to end the surveillance period in November after no active circulation of West Nile virus-carrying mosquitoes was detected and fewer female mosquitoes were caught in traps. .
The military government launched an annual West Nile virus surveillance program in 2020 in response to the West Nile virus outbreak. Culex pipiens On the banks of the Guadalquivir River in Seville, mainly in the villages of Puebla del Río and Coria del Río, there has been an explosion of mosquitoes with 77 infections and eight deaths reported.
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