Tel Aviv [Israel], May 26 (ANI/TPS): Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Health said mosquitoes infected with the West Nile virus have arrived in Israel earlier than expected this year. The mosquitoes were discovered in the area of the Yeruham Local Council and the Ramat Negev Regional Council located to the southeast of Be'er Sheva.

Every season, the pest and extermination team of the Ministry of Environmental Protection carries out hundreds of captures and thousands of monitoring of mosquito larvae. The mosquitoes are transferred to the Ministry of Health laboratories for testing.

With each detection of infected mosquitoes, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issues an immediate demand to the local authority to deal with the hazard. In the captures carried out in May, the mosquitoes infected with the virus were found.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection alerted the councils and authorities in whose jurisdiction the infected mosquitoes were found, and ordered increased monitoring in the infected area and, if necessary, immediate preventive and extermination actions. (ANI/TPS)