The Territorial Delegate of Health and Consumption of the Board in Jaén, Elena González, has organized a round of meetings with the classified and already informed municipalities of their level of risk with respect to the fever of the western Nile (FNO), by virtue of the approval of the Program of Surveillance and Comprehensive Control of Vectors of the FNO 2025.
Today, the Territorial Delegate, together with the head of Health Service, Lourdes Ballesteros, and Francisco José Marchena, head of the environmental Service of the General Directorate of Public Health of the Ministry of Health and Consumption, have held a work meeting, both with those responsible for the municipalities of Jienenses on this health area and with the Diputación de Jaén, to, among others, present the Andalusian program and main novelties in this year, evaluate the epidemiological situation and environmental of the fever of the western Nile in Andalusia and Jaén, the mosquito control plans and municipal surveillance and vector control plans, as well as assess various proposals in this regard.
“From the Ministry of Health and Consumption, it is working intensely since the beginning of this year in the approach of this program, maintaining information and constant relationship with the municipalities and the deputations, to offer all the available documentation, solve doubts and promote prevention against the summer,” said the territorial delegate.
In fact, the Ministry of Health and Consumption has activated about 400 public health agents in Andalusia to improve the actions in surveillance and control of the FNO, which have begun in this month of April. In the approach to western Nile fever, as well as other vector -transmitted diseases, the coordinated work of different actors is required to minimize the impact of that disease on the population.
The transfer to the municipalities of medium risk is that the surveillance and control actions on the larval or adult focuses will focus on the population nuclei, as well as the transitted rural areas of the municipality. In the case of municipalities at high risk, the same measures will be extended to the entire municipal territory, with special attention to larval foci or adult refuge at a distance of 1.5 kilometers from the populations.
On the other hand, as reported in their day, the low risk municipalities must have a mosquito control plan at the local level, which must be included within the local deratization, disinfection and disinfection (DDD) programs, based on the comprehensive pest control strategy. These municipalities will make a diagnosis of the potential larval foci within the population centers or very close to them and have them monitored, preparing to intervene their necessary.
Mobilization of Public Health Agents
In 2025 all the municipalities of Andalusia are included in some level of need for control since predictive models indicate that no municipality can be at a zero risk of probability with respect to circulation of the western Nile virus (VNO). Last year it was found that the VNO has expanded to other provinces and that the species of transmitting mosquitoes are present throughout the Andalusian territory.
For this reason, this year since the General Directorate of Public Health and Pharmaceutical Planning of the Ministry, the mobilization of public health agents in all municipalities has been carried out in all municipalities for their crucial role in the implementation of the FNO transmitting surveillance and control program and control program. This is a great effort on the part of the primary care districts, since it implies the involvement of approximately half of the workforce in these tasks, adjusting them to the rest of the tasks they perform.
Among the main functions of public health agents are to provide advice to the municipalities of their area of competence on the actions to be implemented based on their level of risk and cooperate for implementation. Likewise, the Health Inspectors study and issue a report of assessment of the municipal surveillance and vector control plans (PMVCV), and carry out verification work in the different municipalities based on their classification, checking whether the actions carried out and planned by each City Council are adjusted to its risk level and if they are being effective, in accordance with the Andalusian program of FNO.
In addition, public health agents distributed in the Andalusian territory participate in communication and awareness of citizens already professionals in the field of health prevention and protection.
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