In light of the increase in the number of people diagnosed with leptospirosis in Israel, an emergency meeting was held Sunday morning, 8 Elul, in cooperation with all the professionals: The Ministries of Health, Finance, Agriculture, Environmental Protection, the Nature & Parks Authority, the Water Authority, cattle growers and regional councils, towards arriving at decisions as how to cope with the outbreak of the illness. The alert was released last week as a number of people showed signs and symptoms of the illness, resulting in a swim ban in nachals.

So far, 42 people have been diagnosed with leptospirosis as water testing continues in nachals, with results being positive in Nachal Zeitoun and Nachal Hameshushim. However, other nachals (streams) were tested and results are not in. Therefore; swimming is not recommended. Meanwhile, at the end of the week there was a sharp drop in the number of travelers in the north of the country, due to the panic around the outbreak.

Nevertheless, the Ministry of Health has issued statements of calm, advising the tzibur to continue with the regular routine, including visits to parks and nachals in the north. In addition, the ministry has released guidelines for the prevention of leptospirosis, which should be followed. The ministry warns against entering the water or wet soil from Nachal Zaki, Yehudiya, Hameshushim, Zeitoun, the Yarden in the Park Yarden area, the Daliot River estuary in the Majtasa area only and Nachal Jelboun.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)