The General Directorate of Public Health and Pharmaceutical Management of the Ministry of Presidency, Health and Emergencies of the Junta de Andalucía has confirmed a new case of West Nile fever (WNF) in humans, the third reported this Friday. It corresponds to a man living in Bollullos de la Mitación who remains hospitalized due to meningoencephalitis caused by the West Nile virus (WNV). With this confirmation, the total for the season in Andalucía rises to twelve cases, all detected in the province of Seville.
According to a note from the Andalusian Executive, all diagnoses have been verified by the reference laboratory of the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital. In light of this situation, the Ministry has decided to maintain the declaration of Bollullos de la Mitación as an alert area until August 24.
Additionally, the Andalusian government has declared the municipality of Lopera in Jaén on alert due to the circulation of the West Nile virus. This declaration will last at least four weeks or until an equivalent period passes without new cases being reported or evidence of the virus in vector mosquitoes, birds, or equines in the area.
The alert situation requires strengthening entomological, animal, and human surveillance, implementing community promotion actions, and intensifying communication with the population, especially through community pharmacies and nursing staff, in order to promote protective measures against the virus.
At the same time, the local administration must intensify control and treatment actions for the transmitting mosquitoes while the area remains at alert level, in this case until August 28. Thus, it must reinforce the interventions planned in its Municipal Plan for Surveillance and Control of Vector Transmitters of the West Nile virus, both in urban centers and in points located within a radius of up to 1.5 kilometers classified as larval foci or adult mosquito refuges.
The Territorial Delegation of Health and Consumption of Seville and Jaén has conveyed this information to the Town Halls of Lopera and Bollullos de la Mitación, as well as to the Provincial Councils of Seville and Jaén. Currently, there are eighteen Andalusian municipalities classified as areas on alert: Torredonjimeno in Jaén; Salobreña in Granada; Fuengirola and Las Lagunas-Mijas in Málaga and Almensilla, Aznalcázar, Bollullos de la Mitación, Castilblanco de los Arroyos, Coria del Río, Constantina, Gelves, La Puebla del Río, Mairena del Aljarafe, Palomares del Río, San Juan de Aznalfarache, Seville and Villamanrique de la Condesa in the province of Seville and Lopera (Jaén). Likewise, viral circulation was detected in Benacazón (Sevilla) and Bujalance (Córdoba), although the capture point was located more than 1.5 km from the urban center, so the declaration of an area on alert was not necessary.
Four neuroinvasive cases and reinforcement of surveillance
So far, eight mild cases and four neuroinvasive cases of West Nile fever have been diagnosed this year in Andalusia, specifically in the localities of Palomares del Río, Villamanrique de la Condesa, La Puebla del Río, Coria del Río, Aznalcázar, Seville and Bollullos de la Mitación, after conducting laboratory studies on 298 users, screening for arboviral infections in 106 patients with viral meningitis and 1,172 determinations for West Nile virus in the screening of blood donors with negative results. Likewise, WNV circulation has been detected in two wild birds in Andalusia, out of a total of 219 analyzed, in an area away from population centers in the Doñana National Park. So far, WNV circulation has not been detected in equines during the current season.
Since the period of high mosquito densities began, a total of 3,862 determinations have been made in 216 active traps that, so far, have resulted positive: in Pulpí (Almería), Torredonjimeno (Jaén), Salobreña (Granada); Bujalance (Córdoba); Benacazón, Castilblanco de los Arroyos, Constantina, Coria del Río, La Puebla del Río, including the area of Dehesa de Abajo and the urban center, Almensilla, Aznalcázar, Gelves, Mairena del Aljarafe, Palomares del Río, Bollullos de la Mitación, San Juan de Aznalfarache and Villamanrique de la Condesa (Sevilla); and Las Lagunas, belonging to the municipality of Mijas (Málaga); Lopera (Jaén).
In addition, a progressive increase in densities is being detected, so that in the last week an abundant density of female transmitting mosquitoes has been recorded in La Puebla del Río, Coria del Río, Los Palacios and Villafranca, Isla Mayor, Villamanrique de la Condesa, Palomares del Río in the province of Seville and Mollina in the province of Málaga.
The Ministry of Presidency, Health and Emergencies has 134 traps distributed throughout all provinces to monitor and control the circulation of the virus in mosquitoes of the genus 'culex', mainly 'culex pipiens' and 'culex perexiguus', and also centralizes the data provided by traps from other administrations, such as the councils of Huelva, Seville and Córdoba, the Doñana Biological Station of the CSIC (EBD-CSIC) and the competitive research unit 'Zoonoses and emerging diseases from the perspective of One Health' of the University of Córdoba (Enzoem-UCO), so it receives information from about 220 traps for decision-making on the risk levels of each municipality or the declaration of an area in municipal alert or singular area, in case the circulation of the virus is detected in a population nucleus distant from the main one of the municipality, such as districts or autonomous local entities.
The FNO Program communicated in March to all Andalusian municipalities the risk level with which they began the high circulation season. Currently, 122 municipalities are at a high risk level: Almería six, Cádiz 18, Córdoba 14, Granada five, Huelva 15, Jaén nine, Málaga eleven and Sevilla 44.
Public Health agents deployed throughout the territory have carried out 1,563 verifications in a total of 690 municipalities. In 353 municipalities, the drains and other control points have been reviewed. The Local Projects teams of FNO (EPLFNO) have carried out 2,931 direct actions, in which 59,459 people have participated, and indirect actions (posters, radio). Specifically, 1,030 community actions have been developed, 1,586 in schools, 115 in collaboration with non-health professionals and 200 with health professionals.