Reports of suspected cases of Dengue in Italy are increasing and, consequently, also the need for attention to the problem. The latest reports, in chronological order, concerned a patient arriving at the San Martino hospital in Genoa from Argentina and a man at the ATS in Brescia. But cases have also been recorded in Busto Arsizio, in the province of Varese, and in Veneto.
I am already three circulars from the Ministry of Health which aim to raise the alert on Dengue in airports, ports and also in local medicine. But to save the summer and tourism, experts are calling for coordinated and timely action.
In particular Pier Luigi Lopalcoprofessor of Hygiene at the University of Salento, explained to Adnkronos Salute that “the preventive actions to be taken are twofold: mosquito control and disease case surveillance. We need to strengthen these two actions. Summer is approaching and we need to act immediately.” “We have time to take the situation seriously. Italy, for reasons related to the climate and the presence of humid areas, is at risk of introducing mosquito-related diseases”, he concludes. Pregliasco, 'we risk more native cases, save summer and tourism' **
For Fabrizio Pregliasco “we must certainly expect autochthonous cases of Dengue in Italy. Already last year, over 80” were detected by the surveillance of the Higher Institute of Health on infections carried by mosquitoes. And “this year we risk having more”, considering the record numbers recorded in Brazil and in general in the American region. For this reason, the virologist from the State University of Milan tells Adnkronos Salute, “Coordinated action is really needed“, by the entire population as well as the institutions, to combat the proliferation of the tiger mosquito. “It is also important to save the summer and the tourist season.”
The expert recalls that “more than 60-70% of Dengue cases are asymptomatic”, so the infections that come to the attention of monitoring systems represent “the tip of the iceberg”. There is a great 'submerged' also for this infection “as happens for Covid”, specifies Pregliasco, who in view of the arrival of the heat relaunches his appeal for “responsibility and attention on the part of everyone”.
Acting “now”, and doing so “with maximum energy”, to prevent the proliferation of the tiger mosquito, a possible carrier of the Dengue virus, is the appeal launched by Roberto Burioni, according to which it is the only way “to avoid finding ourselves in trouble in the summer months”, dealing with an infection that risks becoming endemic in Italy too. And if for now we are talking about imported infections, the memory goes back to last year when in the Peninsula there were 82 (out of a total of 362) native cases recorded by the Higher Institute of Health. Numbers to which must be added a hidden amount that is difficult to quantify, given that the infection does not always cause symptoms and when it does not cause serious symptoms it is not guaranteed that it will be recognised.
“In Brazil and other countries the situation is very serious – reminds Burioni to Adnkronos Salute – so we can expect infected people to arrive in Italy. It has already happened in my Pesaro – underlines the professor of microbiology and virology of Vita University -Greetings to San Raffaele of Milan, originally from the city in the Marche region – where Mayor Ricci rightly banned a Good Friday procession.” “In Italy a vector” capable of transmitting Dengue, “the tiger mosquito, already exists – underlines Burioni – and therefore, if the number of infected people arriving is high and the number of mosquitoes is high, it can be triggered a local transmission that could constitute a big problem – warns the teacher – because the disease in one case out of 20 is serious”.
For Dengue, Burioni highlights, “we do not have a specific therapy and the vaccine, just approved, is still of limited usefulness. Therefore the problem depends on two factors. The first is the trend of the epidemic in the countries now affected: if the things remain serious, infected people will continue to arrive and we can do little about this also because 50% of cases are asymptomatic”. But “the second factor is the number of tiger mosquitoes present in Italy” and “we can intervene on this: we must do it now, with maximum energy – urges the virologist – to avoid finding ourselves in trouble in the summer months”. “We remember that the disease is transmitted only through the bite of the mosquito” and that this, “after it has bitten an infected person, remains infectious for his entire life, more or less a month – explains Burioni – being able to infect all the people who stings.”
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