SEVILLE, 24 October (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Ministry of Health and Consumption, through the General Directorate of Public Health and Drug Regulation, has been launching a special training program for early detection of mosquito-borne epidemics for public health agents since 2021.

The second course with 50 participants this week was held in Almería, as a complement to the training event in 2021, in an online theoretical mode and with applications in areas where most of the cases announced during the year. 2020. .

This program, coordinated by the Environmental Health Service of the General Directorate of Public Health and Drug Management, in collaboration with Iavante of the Progreso y Salud Foundation and the company specializing in pest control Lokímica, is the result of the largest outbreak in Spain. Due to West Nile Virus disease recorded in the provinces of Seville and Cádiz in 2020.

The aim of this training activity was to perfect the skills of Andalusian Public Health Regional Agents in the field of sanitary entomology and in the control of mosquito populations in both urban and rural settings.

Likewise, it is aimed to educate them for comprehensive and effective management of the prevention process through monitoring, monitoring and evaluation of mosquito populations of different species and to contribute to the early detection of special health risk situations.

The three-day training that makes up the course consists of a theoretical phase and a practical phase, in which the participating professionals reinforce basic and advanced concepts by applying them to reality. To do this, they made visits and practices where they learned to control a hypothetical epidemiological risk situation. This year, theoretical and practical information on what are known as tiger mosquitoes is included.

This activity is part of the Impulse Programme, an initiative for thousands of professionals from the Andalusian Public Health System in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs, the General Secretariat of Public Health and R&D, and the Andalusian Health Service. 2022/2023 biennium.

The Impulso program is funded with Feder funds in line with the goals and measures contained in the Spanish Government’s Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience.
In addition, it is part of the knowledge of health professionals in the fields of work that will bring about the Future Andalusian Strategic Plan for the Control of Diseases with a Health Impact of Arthropod Vectors, currently in force, coordinated by the Environmental Health Service. detailing stage.

WEST NILE VIRUS

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), West Nile virus infection is asymptomatic in approximately 80% of infected persons; in others it can cause West Nile fever, or a serious condition primarily seen in immunocompromised individuals, characterized by fever, headache, fatigue, body aches, nausea, vomiting, and sometimes skin (trunk) rashes and enlarged lymph nodes.

West Nile virus is maintained in nature by the mosquito-bird-mosquito transmission cycle, but it can be transmitted to humans through the bite of these insects. According to the WHO, effective prevention of human West Nile virus infections largely depends on the development of comprehensive and integrated mosquito surveillance and control programs in areas where the virus is present.

OTHER DISEASES Transmitted by Mosquitoes

The course includes expanding knowledge on other mosquito species of the genus Aedes spp, Anopheles spp, which may potentially transmit health-related diseases such as Dengue, Zika or Mosquitoes, with respect to training received in 2021. chikungunya In the case of Aedes and Malaria, in the case of Anopheles, whose habitats and living habits and bites differ from the genus of mosquitoes that transmit West Nile Virus.