SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 16. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Ministry of Health of the Government of the Canary Islands informs this Wednesday that the Entomological Surveillance System of the Canary Islands has deployed a hundred new traps for the surveillance and detection of the ‘Aedes Aegypti’ mosquito in La Palma, after the discovery of two larvae of this species.
The ‘Aedes aegypti’ is a vector for the transmission of viral diseases in other geographical areas where these pathologies are common, which does not happen in the Canary Islands, although the sequencing of the larvae verified that it does not contain a virus that carries communicable diseases, although it is necessary to activate also the surveillance protocol.
Currently, the team of the Entomological Surveillance System, coordinated by the General Directorate of Public Health in collaboration with the Directorate of the Health Area of La Palma, has already trained the Public Health inspectors and the island’s pharmacists on the program of surveillance of bites, by conducting citizen surveys to alert of the presence of mosquitoes suspected of belonging to the Aedes Aegypti species or of compatible bites.
In addition, Primary and Specialized Care health professionals are also being alerted regarding the data to be taken into account if there is any notification in this regard.
All reported bites will be investigated by health professionals, through a survey of the affected person, a photograph of the bite, affected body area and subsequent inspection of the home to search for and identify mosquitoes, their larvae or their eggs.
CENTRALIZED DEVICE
In addition, a centralized device has been installed in the Health Area of La Palma that is responsible for organizing the distribution of the traps and the collection of the material obtained for the maturation of the eggs and larvae, for subsequent shipment to the Institute of Diseases Tropical and Public Health of the University of La Laguna, where the final identification of the species and the sequencing of its genetic material will be carried out, in order to investigate the presence of the virus and its origin.
Since the detection of the two ‘Aedes aegypti’ larvae, a first prevention action has been carried out, expanding the ratio of trap placement at different points to those established in the usual protocol.
The traps are installed at points considered to be at greatest risk, such as greenhouses, banana packing plants, cemeteries and tire dumps, in addition to the port and airport where they are already located by protocol.
TARGET
The objective of the Entomological Surveillance System of the Canary Islands is to detect early adult specimens, eggs or larvae of invasive mosquitoes, which already detected the presence of this mosquito in Fuerteventura in 2017, managing to definitively eradicate it.
The Ministry highlights in a note that the surveillance system is capable of detecting even the larvae and eggs of invasive mosquitoes early, before their presence has been notified or before they have caused bites in the population of the island.
However, it specifies that the presence of the mosquito does not mean that there is transmission of diseases such as dengue, Zika, yellow fever or chicungunya, since these are not present in the archipelago, except for sporadic imported cases.
Citizen collaboration is important in this task of monitoring invasive species in the Canary Islands.
To do this, you can contact the General Directorate of Public Health by sending photos of the suspected mosquito to the email [email protected].
They can also send photos of bites that they consider suspicious due to the strong inflammatory reaction accompanied by great itching.
Whenever photos of suspicious specimens or bites are sent, it is essential to clearly indicate the geographical location where the mosquito was detected or the suspicious bite was produced.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SPECIES
The ‘Aedes’ mosquitoes are black with stripes and smaller than the usual ones in our territory, they appear more in urban environments and have adapted to reproduce in small water points generated by man.
They usually bite during the day and not at night and their bite generates a strong inflammatory reaction that is accompanied by a great stinging, they move nimbly close to the ground and no buzzing is heard.
The female mosquitoes are the ones that bite, since they need to feed on blood to reproduce and 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.
The mosquitoes that bite humans need to be breeding very close to them, so the most effective measure against them is to monitor or eliminate their breeding sites.
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.
