Bed Bug Municipal Management City Of Madrid (Spain)

Initially infestations of houses by Cimex lectularius were sporadically detected in the middle of the previous decade and increased over the past years. Data obtained by the Environmental Health Department have shown events increase by 1000% in the past five years for the whole city. Among the 21 City Districts, 01-Centro gathered the highest number of municipal interventions against bed bug infestations. In response to this situation, the environmental health services of Madrid City Council have quickly designed an action plan and specific procedures to carry out the best possible practices for preventing and controlling the numerous circumstances of bed bug infestation and spread. Some substantial actions are the following: (1) The promotion of information, education and reliability of citizens. (2) The information and promotion of the co-responsibility of the hotel industry. (3) Protection of municipal facilities susceptible to bed bug infestation, especially facilities and housing related to social care and temporary shelter of the homeless. (4) Special procedures and municipal intervention in social housing scenarios and other very complex cases such as bedbugs in multi-infested buildings, Diogenes Syndrome, etc. (5) Implementation of a special municipal service for collection of infested mattresses, furniture, etc. (6) Integrated monitoring and management through the vector/pest management geographic information system (GIS) of Health Madrid. (7) The cooperation and information sharing with private sector pest control companies. The implementation of these measurements and the analysis of the data obtained through the last five years allowed us to draw several conclusions, such as: (A) The lack of reliable indicators of infestation, then the important risk of underestimating real City situation and tendencies. (B) The importance that competent administrations, especially the health local authority, become aware of the relevance of this problem and of the necessity of a strong proactive and early response. (C) The transcendence and difficulty of implementing powerful strategies of citizen information and education regarding bedbug infestations, key aspect in an efficient prevention and control of the infestation spread. Media impact and information management. (D) The remarkable technical difficulties of the infestations treatments, especially in cases such as social housing, multiple-infested premises, squatted buildings, etc. Current problems for the use of new bedbug biocides and technologies in these complex situations. (E) The human and economic impact of bedbug infestations, especially in vulnerable social layers. (F) The importance of collaboration and coordination between Municipal Government (mainly Health, Environmental and Human Services) and pest control companies.