Not too long ago, dengue seemed like a distant threat to Europeans. This tropical disease was limited to Latin America, Africa and Asia, where it continues to wreak havoc. But now it has also jumped to Europe, specifically, to the south of the continent. Italy, with 66; France, with 36, and to a lesser extent, Spain, with three, have reported in recent weeks an increase in cases that has set off health alarms because in addition, and given that more than 50% of individuals with dengue are asymptomatic, the real number of infections may be much higher.
As with other tropical diseases such as Zika or yellow fever, to which it is related, the cause of dengue transmission is the tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), a species that operates in warm and humid areas. . The contagion mechanism is simple: when the mosquito bites an infected person, it ‘takes’ the virus, and later transmits it to another person by biting them. The main symptoms of dengue are high fever, headaches, skin rashes and fatigue. Its mortality is between 2 and 3% of cases and each year it kills around 40,000 people worldwide.
Several factors have favored the spread of the disease to areas that were previously free of it. «On the one hand, the end of restrictions against covid-19 has increased travel and has allowed infected people to travel to Europe, where transmission has begun.
In addition, climate change has raised temperatures, which makes mosquitoes survive longer and reproduce better. And finally, through the importation of products such as bamboo, or in car wheels, or in containers that transport tires, Aedes has been able to circulate very easily,” explains María Velasco, spokesperson for the Spanish Society of Diseases. Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (Seimc).
Several open fronts
The travel capacity of the vector (the animal that transmits the disease) is so high that the mosquito in Spain is no longer limited to occupying the coastal areas, but has reached the interior of the country. “In our country it is distributed along the roads,” adds Velasco. In any case, the three cases reported so far in Spain have occurred in Catalonia, the last two, last week in the Barcelona town of Malgrat de Mar.
The fight against dengue has several fronts. In several municipalities in Colombia, a country where the prevalence of the disease is very high, mosquitoes have been introduced that have previously been infected with a bacteria called Wolbachia that deactivates the dengue virus. These mosquitoes have been replacing the aggressive ‘tigers’, which has caused a decrease of between 94 and 97% of cases of the disease.
In Europe, the vaccine is the most common preventive method, although it is only administered to people who visit endemic areas. Meanwhile, those infected are asked to use mosquito repellent to stop the chain of transmission, and since there are no specific treatments, they are prescribed pain relievers such as paracetamol, and avoid aspirin and ibuprofen.
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