Just one day after the first cases of indigenous chikungunya were detected in Puerto Vallarta, the city was fined by the State Health Commission for violations in controlling the spread of dengue and chikungunya.
As the State of Jalisco announced programs to battle dengue and chikungunya, state health inspectors found an area in the municipality of Puerto Vallarta where hundreds of tires were disposed of by the city and gathering water. The water at the site tested positive for larvae of the mosquitoes known to carry the dengue and chikungunya viruses.
The tire dumping site was in the community of El Ranchito, the same community that reported the first cases of indigenous chikungunya in the State of Jalisco. Two women in the community tested positive for the virus the day before the tire dump site was discovered by state health inspectors.
Jalisco’s Secretary of Health, Jaime Agustín González Álvarez, severely criticized the actions of Puerto Vallarta for negligence in allowing tires to be disposed of and creating a breeding ground for the virus carrying mosquitoes. The Health Secretary said Puerto Vallarta already is in a region with environmental risks for the spread of dengue and chikungunya, and the city is adding to the problem with manmade risks while the state is investing in fighting the spread of the viruses.
“While we are fighting these viruses within our state borders to Colima, Nayarit and Michoacan, to try to minimize the impact, we find that we have in the city of Puerto Vallarta a site that is generating millions of flies per day and the city is not addressing the problem, it makes our efforts worthless,” said the secretary.
