Two residents of Coria del Río have died in recent hours from the West Nile virus, transmitted to humans by mosquito bites, bringing the number of deaths this summer in the province of Seville to five. This was confirmed by the Ministry of Health, which also certified ten new cases of infection, including two people from Dos Hermanas, four from Coria del Río, two from Los Palacios and Villafranca, one person from Gerena and another from Carmona, municipalities the latter two of which are included in the problem.
One of the victims is a 71-year-old man. Previously, a 71-year-old woman from Dos Hermanas with previous pathologies had died, as well as an 86-year-old woman infected in La Puebla del Río. The third victim was a woman over 87 years old with previous pathologies, also a resident of Coria del Río, a municipality in which three of the five deaths recorded to date have occurred.
Of the ten infected people, three have already been discharged from hospital. One of them is a neighbor of Gerena, a municipality located on the Ruta de la Plata, almost 40 kilometers from the capital, which has raised the health risk level in that city from level one to level five. Also at a considerable distance from Seville, 35 kilometers, is Carmona, where another case has been detected.
On horses and an imperial eagle chick
On the other hand, the presence of the virus was detected in mosquito captures carried out in the Sevillian municipalities of Almensilla, Los Palacios and Villafranca, Utrera and Villamanrique de la Condesa, as well as in the Cordovan municipalities of Montalbán and Puente Genil and in the Cadiz villages of Benalup Old Houses and Vejer de la Frontera.
Likewise, thanks to the integration of surveillance, Public Health informs that the Doñana Biological Station of the CSIC has also located the presence of the Nile virus in mosquitoes captured in the Sevillian municipalities of La Puebla del Río, Coria del Río and Palomares del. Río, all of them already previously included in the situation.
In turn, the presence of the virus was detected in a horse in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz) and another in Écija (Seville) by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development; and in an imperial eagle chick in La Carolina (Jaén) by the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment and Blue Economy.
Criticism of the PSOE
This situation led on Monday the regional deputy of the PSOE of Seville and provincial secretary of the Organization of Sevillian Socialists, Rafael Recio, to demand precisely in Coria del Río that the Andalusian government of the popular Juan Manuel Moreno give an “urgent response” to the health crisis caused by the spread of these mosquitoes.
Recio accused the Andalusian Executive of “looking the other way” and resorting to “confrontation” with the municipalities, which are asking the Commission to collaborate financially with the cost of the disinfestation works. In this sense, he regretted that citizens are facing this health crisis “without energetic leadership” from the Andalusian Government “or effective coordination at the highest level of political management” of the Council, while “fear” is growing in the municipalities affected by this problem.
In addition, he called on the Andalusian PP Government to “act not only as an emergency, but as a preventive measure against the coming summers”, recalling that the Socialist group in Parliament has requested a meeting of the Permanent Deputation of the Chamber, which will be held this Tuesday, in which the Secretary General of the PSOE-A, Juan Espadas, will ask the Council for “explanations” on this issue and explain “what the plan is” against the virus transmitted by mosquitoes.
Action plans
The First Andalusian Strategic Plan for the Surveillance and Control of Arthropod Vectors with Health Impact (PEVA), promoted by the Government of Andalusia and which obliges the town halls of municipalities affected by the problem of mosquitoes transmitting the West Nile virus to implement municipal preventive fumigation plans against these insects. In this context, the town halls are demanding greater “involvement” from the Agency in this matter and that the cost of the work does not fall exclusively on them.
In addition, the Provincial Delegation of Seville has hired two disinfestation companies for more than a million euros, to strengthen and expand municipal plans in the 13 municipalities designated by the Government of Andalusia as affected by this situation. Specifically, the measure is intended for Almensilla, Aznalcázar, Bollullos de la Mitación, Las Cabezas de San Juan, Coria, Dos Hermanas, Isla Mayor, Los Palacios and Villafranca, La Puebla del Río, Lebrija, Palomares, Utrera and Villamanrique de la Condesa. , although infected neighbors have already been detected in Alcalá de Guadaíra, Mairena del Aljarafe and Gerena.
