Dr Hamza Habib Allaha senior pest and control center from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, was interviewed today (Tuesday) on Yoav Mintz’s program on 104.5FM, and referred to the additional case in the past year where mosquitoes infected with West Nile fever were discovered and explained how dangerous they are.
A sign of concern? Mosquitoes infected with Nile fever have been discovered in Israel
“It is serious at such a level that people can be infected by them,” said Dr. Habib Allah, “We discovered them in Nahal Naaman, Keri Naaman and Ein Afek in the Mata Asher Regional Council area. This is a very unusual time since there are many mosquitoes around, and after what we discovered in Eilat three weeks ago, it was expected that we would find them in the north since the disease is transmitted by birds that migrate from place to place. We increased the supervision in all mosquito breeding centers throughout the northern region and discovered those in the Meta Asher area.”
“This disease that comes from poultry has no vaccine for humans,” he added, “For healthy humans with a strong immune system, it should not cause special complications and passes as a mild disease with weakness and muscle pain. But for older people and people with underlying diseases, the disease can cause meningitis and even to death. There were such cases.”
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After that, the official in the Ministry of Environmental Protection said that “in the last 10 years, there have been many cases of West Nile fever. This year, one person died and two more people are now hospitalized with this disease. Therefore, our way is to prevent the dangers of mosquitoes and stop foci that may be a potential for the development of the disease The Ministry of Environmental Protection and I with my team in the north are working to monitor areas that may be breeding grounds for mosquitoes. In addition, the ministry is supervising the local authorities in the areas where the breeding sites were discovered.”
“We are not afraid, the teams know the biology of the disease and know when to be in the field and when not. We are talking about mosquitoes that can only bite at night. Our presence during the day is with zero cases. There are other cases of other mosquitoes that may bite during the day. The public should take care of drying of stagnant water sources,” noted Dr. Habib Allah.