The Ministry of Health and Consumption has notified the Ministry of Health this Friday of the confirmation of a case of West Nile Fever in an 84-year-old woman residing in the municipality of Arroyomolinos de León (Huelva), which is evolving favourably, although it remains hospitalized.
As indicated by the Board in a note, this is the first human case to be reported in this 2023 season, as well as the first confirmed human case in the province of Huelva, the result of epidemiological surveillance by the Ministry of Health and Consumption established within of the West Nile Fever Surveillance and Control Program of Andalusia.
Entomological surveillance and control actions (mosquitoes) began earlier this week in the aforementioned town, due to clinical suspicion after the epidemiological survey carried out, and which includes mobility in the previous 15 days. The location of possible larval foci has already been carried out, larvicide treatment applied, and possible origins and refuge of adults identified through traps installed in the municipality itself.
Based on this confirmation and in accordance with the Andalusian Program, this municipality passes to risk level 5, and consequently a specific shock Plan will be carried out in it, for which the mosquito control service of the Provincial Council is available. Province of Huelva. The authorities of the province, as well as the municipality itself, have already been informed.
The Ministry insists on the "need" for the population to "maintain preventive measures" to avoid mosquito bites in the hours of greatest activity of the species that transmit this disease - hours close to dawn and after sunset- -, both individual --use of registered repellents for topical use and light clothing that covers most of the skin--, and domestic --use of mosquito nets, avoidance of stagnant water or environmental repellents-- especially for the population vulnerable with compromised immunity, and thus "significantly reduce" the chances of transmission.
On the other hand, the Ministry has also communicated this Friday the detection of the West Nile Virus in transmitting mosquitoes in the municipalities of Seville and Huelva, after carrying out the latest weekly report from the General Directorate of Public Health and Pharmaceutical Regulation, which has revealed that this week the population density of females of the Culex pipiens species has remained stable, although an increase in individuals of the Culex perexiguus species has been observed in the catches.
The territorial delegations of Health and Consumption of Seville and Huelva have communicated to the municipal officials the public health actions to be adopted as provided for in the Program for Surveillance and comprehensive control of West Nile Virus-transmitting vectors in Andalusia in order to significantly reduce the probability of transmission to the population. While in the rest of the municipalities of the provinces of Cádiz, Córdoba, Huelva, Málaga and Seville, they show an absence of West Nile Virus.
On the other hand, from the information sent from the CSIC-Doñana Biological Station, the presence of the virus has been reported in mosquitoes captured in the municipality of Hinojos (Huelva), in the heart of the Doñana National Park, with the urban area of the aforementioned municipality far from the catch trap.
