If we’ve learned anything during the Covid pandemic, it’s that few diseases are autochthonous; A virus that originated in a city in China forced the entire world’s population into lockdown in a matter of weeks like never before. mobility of people and goods which challenge the outdated model of impermeable borders are making the concept of endemic diseases increasingly nebulous. No matter how far away it may seem, it will always come. In the midst of the spread of mosquitoes, accelerated by the combination of humidity (due to recent rains) and high temperatures, ideal conditions for their breeding, it became known that only last year these insects were responsible for the Andalusian Autonomous Community. register more one hundred cases of malaria, 47 cases of dengue fever and 76 cases of leishmaniasis which, in our opinion, were typical for other latitudes.
Treats diseases transmitted by insects (malaria, Mediterranean exanthematic fever, dengue, West Nile fever or leishmaniasis and others.), whose resurgence is linked to global environmental changes, currently account for 17% of infectious diseases worldwide and cause more than 700,000 deaths per year worldwide. They are not alien to Andalusia, so last year imported, confirmed and probable cases of dengue (47) or malaria (101), as well as autochthonous cases such as leishmaniasis (76) or Nile fever
(2), which caused three deaths in an autonomous community of patients, most with pre-existing conditions, one from leishmaniasis (81-year-old man), one from malaria (68-year-old woman) and one from Nile fever, 84-year-old woman from the city of Arroyomolinos de Leon in the province of Huelva..
As the Andalusian government announced last week on the occasion Andalusian Strategic Plan for the Surveillance and Control of Arthropod Vectors with Health Impacts (PEVA)presented after the government council, insists on the need to “outline strategic directions and actions for the surveillance and control of this type of disease.”
PEVA is based on the fact that “Andalusia is a large territory with a very dispersed population, a great diversity and richness of ecosystems and a geographical position that represents a natural border with third countries, therefore susceptible location of disease vectorsand appropriate sensitivity to climate change.”
The Andalusian Executive recalls that the implementation Integrated West Nile Virus (WNV) Surveillance and Control Program, following the massive outbreak of this disease in 2020, meant the development of a set of preventive, surveillance and vector control measures (in this case mosquitoes) that led to an improvement in the health of Andalusians by preventing problems. resulting from this disease. This program achieved a very significant reduction in the number of people infected and deaths from FNO in the years following its implementation, becoming a model for other Spanish and European communities.
PrinceResearcher at the Doñana Biological Station Jordi Figurola, admitted that “this is nothing new, since they are repeated from year to year, we must take into account, for example, that in Spain about 800 cases of malaria are registered annually.” These are “imported cases of travelers returning from places where these types of insects spread these diseases, since the circumstances are very difficult for them to be transmitted to other people, but this can happen; For example, in Catalonia, two cases of dengue were recently reported in people who had not traveled. Right now, South America is seeing more dengue cases and it is more than predictable that they will reach our country.”
According to malaria, is “a protozoan that was eradicated from Spain in the 1960s and has gone from being found in tropical countries to being found in developed countries. Thus, for example, cases can occur even in Finland, as in fact they occurred even in the marshes of Seville.” According to Figuerola, both climate change and changes in the mobility of people around the world are “contributing to the spread of cases.”
To avoid this, he suggests something relatively simple: “This type of mosquito prefers to live in damp places; For example, any container that we have on the balcony with water at home, a plate in a flower pot, for example, at high temperatures becomes a place where they multiply.” Figerola, for example, recalls that there has been a serious outbreak of dengue fever in Madeira, which may reach Gran Canaria and is beginning to be observed in some areas of the capital.” They have also been found in Italy or France, so there could be “dozens or hundreds” of cases.
For all these reasons, control of these outbreaks is “of fundamental importance, especially in relation to the measures that can be put into practice town halls in sewers or scuppers
. If nothing is done, the spread may accelerate more than noticeably,” so the fumigation work carried out these days seems necessary.To prepare PEVA for each area, specific working groups were created, consisting of national experts in each of them, whose work was integrated under the guidance of a steering committee and methodologically supported Andalusian School of Public Health. Thus, the event was attended by more than 40 experts and risk managers from different fields of knowledge, including entomologists, doctors and epidemiologists, chemists, pharmacists and veterinarians. Likewise, the plan was subject to public hearing procedures and input from all administrations, including local administrations through their representative body and the eight provincial councils, so that they could provide input from their own perspective.