Chalandri–Oropos: spraying against West Nile virus

A crew from the Attica Region carried out a preventive adulticide spraying operation in Chalandri from 07:00 on Friday 21 August 2026, in the area bounded by Tymfristou and Doukissis Plakentias streets. According to the announcement by the Municipality of Chalandri, the intervention was made “due to a case of West Nile virus”. The instructions to residents provided for people and pets to be kept away from outdoor areas, for doors and windows to remain closed for at least one hour, and for hanging laundry, toys and utensils to be removed from the ground. These are standard protective measures that accompany every spraying operation in a residential area. The municipality gave no details about the case itself, nor did it announce whether similar interventions had preceded it in the same neighbourhood.

In the Municipality of Oropos the mosquito control programme has been stepped up since the start of the summer. After a meeting between Mayor Giorgos Giasimakis and the contractor’s scientific staff on 4 June 2026, spraying and larviciding became weekly rather than fortnightly across all municipal communities. Larviciding is carried out with a biological preparation of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis and growth regulators, while Ovi-Catch traps have been placed in the cemeteries. So far, according to the municipality, no tiger mosquito, that is Aedes albopictus, has been found in the traps and no case of the virus has been recorded within its boundaries. The combination of larviciding and adulticiding targets both eggs and larvae and adult mosquitoes, with the aim of reducing the population before seasonal activity peaks.

The picture is similar in Rafina and Pikermi, where successive rounds of interventions are being carried out in Rafina, Pikermi, Dioni, Ntrafi and Kallitechnoupoli, with checks on hundreds of storm drains. Oviposition traps have been installed and the findings are sent to the Agricultural University of Athens for identification. The National Public Health Organisation is recording cases in a series of municipalities in the Regional Unit of Eastern Attica and speaks of particularly intense circulation of the virus in the Attica Region. The intensification of measures in Eastern Attica is in line with what has already been recorded in the western suburbs too, such as in Petroupoli after a case was identified.

Nationwide, a bulletin dated 20 August 2026 reports 47 new cases in the past week. The municipalities have not announced an end date for the programmes, which usually continue for as long as the mosquito activity period lasts. The effectiveness of spraying depends to a large extent on eliminating breeding sites on private property, that is standing water in flowerpots, containers, swimming pools and gutters, a point on which the relevant announcements insist. The number of cases per municipality in Attica has not been made public, nor has it been announced whether additional spraying is planned in other neighbourhoods of Chalandri. Municipalities usually give notice of each new spraying operation a few hours before it is carried out, through their websites and social media.

Update 20:00: Eastern Attica is, according to figures from the National Public Health Organisation released on Friday 21 August 2026, the most heavily affected area in the country. By municipality, 14 cases are recorded in Spata-Artemida, 11 in Markopoulo Mesogaias, nine in Vari-Voula-Vouliagmeni, six in Agia Paraskevi, five in Pallini, five in Chalandri and four in Glyfada. Daily spraying is being carried out in the municipalities with the highest number of severe cases involving central nervous system manifestations. Nationwide, up to 19 August 2026, 157 cases and 13 deaths have been recorded, against 96 cases and nine deaths in the whole of 2025. According to the organisation, for every confirmed case there are around 140 undiagnosed infections.