Seprona demonstrates presence of norovirus in Mendo River during gastroenteritis outbreak

Seprona demonstrates presence of norovirus in Mendo River during gastroenteritis outbreak

A report just sent to the Betanzos court by the National Guard’s Nature Conservation Service (Seprona) contradicts the Ministry of Infrastructure’s assertion that norovirus was not present in the Mendo River during this year’s gastroenteritis outbreak. In Betanzos.

The Mayor of Betancera, María Barral, yesterday unveiled the report of the National Guard Agency, based on analytical tests carried out by Ogas de Galicia, which proves the presence of norovirus in the river waters existence in. Population of Betanzos. These include those near the Oza-Cesuras and Curtis treatment plants.

Analyzes carried out in June starting on the 12th consistently showed positive norovirus at one of the sampling points, sometimes even at all 7 sampling points.

The report, obtained by this newspaper, also pointed to deficiencies at the Oza-Cesouras treatment plant. Mayor Brigantine accused the autonomous department led by Ethel Vazquez of “lying” and “playing with the health of the people of Betancillo.” Furthermore, he said that Seprona even asked for documents from the Oza-Cesuras Council, but The Oza-Cesuras Commission did not provide it.

“We asked for active and passive analyses, but he withheld them from us,” Baral said. He recalled that the city council had always insisted that the source of the outbreak was in the river, and that the supply concessionaire’s analysis also pointed to at this point.

“No matter how publicly we asked for the results of the analysis of Ogas de Galicia, we never got it, and the MP publicly said that the river is fine and the problem is the Betanzos network,” Baral failed yesterday , he also took a harsh stance against the PPP’s municipal group, accusing the group of exploiting the water crisis for “political” reasons.

Councilor Brigantine read an opinion piece published by the group in the Betanzos Merchant newspaper, which literally stated that “no trace of norovirus was found” in the river and accused the mayor of “confused and deceived the people.”

The Ministry of Infrastructure, which has hitherto denied the existence of norovirus, assured after consultation with this newspaper that “no values ​​different from those found in other rivers for norovirus were detected” in Mendo and that “this explains the outbreak” . The department also noted that Betanzos must make the water drinkable, arguing that the problem was resolved when the network was cleared. Vázquez in turn accused Barral of being a liar and lamented that she “turned to victimhood” to “escape.” her direct responsibility.

Ogas de Galicia insisted that the norovirus values ​​analyzed were “not higher than the parameters present in other rivers” and therefore could not be considered “healthy”, the ministry insisted in a statement released yesterday. “The source of the problem”. He added that it was “still unclear” so far whether the source was a water treatment plant, a pipe or a water tank.

Those explanations did not convince the Brigadier General’s Committee, which found Sunta’s withholding of information in public health cases “very serious.” Barral estimated the crisis’s cost to Betanzos at 800,000 euros.

The councilor stressed “we will stay the course” to see if there is any possibility of placing blame on a gastroenteritis outbreak that has affected the city for almost two months, forcing the council to hire water tankers and distribute water. to citizens.