The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands reports that the Entomological Surveillance System of Canary Islandscoordinated by the General Directorate of Public Health, has begun the work of fumigation of thirteen homes near the home where specimens of the mosquito were detected last Wednesday Aedes aegypti.
The tasks have begun early this Friday, acting on homes, storage rooms, patios and other common areas. Disinsection work has required the affected people to remain outside their homes for twelve hours.
These works are carried out after the inspection work carried out yesterday in the homes and other areas to identify the risk points near the home where the specimens were located. As established by the protocol, the area was perimetered to carry out the inspection and location of possible breeding sites and a plant in the house had been identified as a possible breeding ground, for which reason the traceability of the product that had been recently acquired is being carried out.
The Aedes aegypti is a black-striped mosquito, smaller than the usual ones in our territory, which appears more in urban environments and has adapted to reproduce in small man-made water points. It is a vector for the transmission of viral diseases in other geographical areas where these pathologies are endemic, which is not the case in the Canary Islands.
It is important to point out that no bites have been reported and that the presence of the mosquito does not imply the transmission of diseases such as dengue, Zika, yellow fever or chicungunya, since these are not present in our territory, except in sporadic cases. imported.
citizen collaboration
Citizens can send photos of suspected presence of Aedes aegypti to the vector email account.scs@gobiernodecanarias.org or images of strong inflammatory reactions due to bites if they occur, indicating the geographical location where it has been located and a telephone number.
Health highlights that the Surveillance System is effective in detecting even invasive mosquito larvae and eggs early, before they have caused bites in the island’s population. In this sense, all the necessary information is being collected to delimit, verify and, where appropriate, eradicate the presence of this mosquito on the island.
Species characteristics
The Aedes aegypti usually bites during the day and not at night and its bite generates a strong inflammatory reaction that is accompanied by great itching. They move close to the ground nimbly and no buzz is heard. The female mosquitoes are the ones that bite, since they need to feed on blood to reproduce. They also need water (breeding points) to complete their development. They lay their eggs in the water, from which the larvae will emerge, which will later transform into pupae (both aquatic) and which will finally become mosquitoes.
Mosquitoes that bite humans need to breed very close to humans. That is why the most effective measure against them is to monitor or eliminate their breeding points.
Since the beginning of this surveillance program, citizen collaboration has been considered very important to identify possible invasive mosquitoes and the elimination of their breeding sites.
Detection expertise
The Canary Islands Entomological Surveillance system remains active after the detection of larvae on La Palma in March of this year, with no more larvae or mosquitoes appearing, and the eradication of the species in 2017, in Fuerteventura. Since 2013, the Canary Islands have had an Entomological Surveillance System, coordinated by the General Directorate of Public Health in collaboration with the University Institute of Tropical Diseases and Public Health of the University of the Lagoonin order to detect early the possible appearance of invasive mosquitoes.
The objective of the Entomological Surveillance System of the Canary Islands is to detect early adult specimens, eggs or larvae of invasive mosquitoes. For this, the following actions are determined:
-Various devices implanted in the main entry points for mosquitoes in the Archipelago are monitored, such as ports and airports and certain greenhouses.
– A bite surveillance program is activated in all health centers on the island and in pharmacies, through surveys by health professionals.
– If there is notification of bites, Public Health inspectors analyze each case through a survey, photograph of the bite and inspection of the home to search for and identify the mosquito, its larvae or its eggs, if any.
