• Health.The Board confirms that the meningoencephalitis detected in two towns in Seville is linked to the Nile Fever, transmitted by mosquitoes

When Juanma Moreno called Jesús Aguirre , a family doctor in Córdoba, to take charge of the Health portfolio in his government, he was about to retire and had tickets to travel with his wife to a quiet destination through Imserso. But he did not think about it and decided to accept the challenge that, to begin with, was not easy: The PP had campaigned on the deterioration of Andalusian health with the socialist governments and, after taking the reins of the autonomous community from Susana Díaz, was determined to make the battle to reduce waiting lists one of his political challenges.

A year and a half later, that objective seems even more complicated than in January 2019, when the new coalition government (PP-Cs) took office. A new health crisis has stressed these days the Public Health services of the Junta de Andalucía. The confirmation this Thursday that the outbreak of meningoencephalitis detected in Seville is caused by the Nile virus, which is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito, has forced all the alerts to be turned on and to start up, once again, to epidemiologists. In the middle of August and after months of wear and tear as a result of the overload derived from the coronavirus pandemic, the Andalusian Health System (SAS) will have to face a disease that occurs in most cases with mild symptoms, but which has already led to the hospitalization of 17 people, 7 of whom are in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit). All those affected (19 in total) come from two Sevillian municipalities closely linked to the Guadalquivir marsh, as indicated by their respective place names: Coria del Río and Puebla del Río .

Just a year ago, and also around the festive bridge in August, the Sevillians were equally surprised, then by massive food poisoning. On the 15th of that month, the Ministry of Health issued the first official statement that spoke of 40 affected after consuming a meat contaminated with listeria of the Magrudis brand and marketed under the name of La Mechá . Prepared in industrial warehouses in the El Pino industrial estate in Seville, the meat had been distributed through various supermarkets and also in multiple catering establishments. The total number of affected exceeded 200 and listeriosis caused four deaths and seven abortions , according to the data handled by the court that is instructing the case, for which the owner of Magrudis, José Antonio Marín , his children, Sandro and Mario, his wife, Encarnación Rodríguez, and his sister-in-law, Isabel Rodríguez.

The Junta de Andalucía for its part estimated the health cost of the listeriosis crisis at three and a half million euros . But not all the effort that that first health crisis required for the Government of Juanma Moreno can be translated into figures. Because listeriosis also forced the clearing of hospital beds to accommodate the poisoned and to close an entire plant for pregnant women who had eaten the meat, as the risk of abortion was high.

In addition, it forced to update the epidemiology services of the SAS. Subsequently, the Minister of Health has highlighted on several occasions how the experience of listeriosis served to act more quickly and accurately in the tracking of the first cases of coronavirus in Andalusia. It should be remembered that the first community contagion (not imported) of the pandemic within Spain was registered in Seville.

Now, as with listeriosis or coronavirus, Seville once again becomes the center of maximum attention due to the outbreak of Nile fever and once again the work of epidemiologists will be definitive to know the scope of it and decide the approach of the illness.

For now, the confirmation has come from the hand of the Microbiology services of the Virgen de las Nieves Hospital in Granada, the reference center in Andalusia. Although, as the counselor Aguirre explained this Thursday, the last word on the etiology of the infection will come from the National Center for Microbiology, which is based in Majadahonda.

This new health alert comes amid a rebound in Andalusia in cases of coronavirus , a pandemic that forced the suspension of all delayed interventions and consultations in the autonomous community hospitals (as in those in the rest of the world), which It is causing serious damage in those waiting lists that the Government of Juanma Moreno promised to lighten and for which it had an extra investment of 25 million euros last summer .

But if listeriosis changed the priorities of the Health Minister during the summer of 2019, the coronavirus has finished breaking all forecasts, forcing all efforts to be concentrated on containing the virus. The effect on care for other pathologies has yet to be calculated. Suffice it to remember that the Primary Care centers have not yet re-established face-to-face activity. In addition, at the end of 2019, the situation of the waiting lists had not improved compared to what was registered 12 months earlier.

At that time, a total of 890,966 Andalusians were registered on the public health waiting lists to undergo a surgical intervention or to have a consultation with a specialist doctor, according to official data, which was 5.6% more than the year previous. It should be remembered that the Government of Juanma Moreno denounced months before that Health had detected more than 500,000 waiting patients not registered in the official lists of the socialist governments.

And in that complicated context and in case the Andalusian health system did not already have enough stress, the Nile fever broke out.

Fumigations in La Puebla and Coria

The municipalities of Coria del Río and La Puebla del Río held an emergency meeting with the Ministry of Health on Thursday to study how to address the outbreak of Nile Fever detected in both municipalities in Seville. At the moment, the Ministry of Health has announced that fumigations will be carried out in the area to try to reduce the population of mosquitoes that find in the marshes and wetlands an ideal environment for their reproduction. The Board has recommended to the population of Coria and La Puebla to stay away from these humid areas, to avoid being outdoors at dawn and dusk and to use mosquito nets on the windows and repellent products, since the virus is transmitted to through the mosquito bite.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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