Dengue, in Brescia the first autochthonous case in Italy in 2024: Bassetti’s doubts

A caso autochthonous of Dengue has been identified in the Brescia area. It is the first in Italy in 2024. The ATS reported the news in a note. The Health Protection Agency explained that on “September 10, 2024, a positive case of Dengue was confirmed in the territory of ATS Brescia in a person who had not traveled abroad, as detected by the epidemiological investigation carried out: therefore it is an ‘autochthonous’ case”.

The patient is in good clinical conditions. The municipality of residence of the positive case is Ospitaletto – the agency informs – and the municipalities frequented for work reasons are Gussago and Monticelli. All 3 have issued and published the relative ordinances for the planned actions and have carried out disinfestations with larvicidal and adulticidal treatments”. “The public health activity therefore continues”, concludes the ATS.

“All public health initiatives provided for by national and regional protocols have been activated”, continues the ATS in the note. “The Veterinary Department, in collaboration with Izsler”, Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, “has arranged the positioning of mosquito traps to verify the effectiveness of the disinfestation and for entomological monitoring”.

“It is emphasized that Dengue is not transmitted from person to person, but contagion occurs through the bite of an infected mosquito”, concludes the ATS of Brescia, thus recalling the importance of “defending oneself from the bite”, according to the indications also available on the agency’s website. Further updates will be available tomorrow.

Bassetti: “Will it really be the first of 2024?”

“Here is the first autochthonous Italian case of Dengue in 2024. Will it really be the first or are there many others unknown in other areas of our country? Dengue is now an infection to be clinically suspected, even outside endemic areas, when there are suspicious symptoms”, wrote Matteo Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the Policlinico San Martino in Genoa, on social media.

Ciccozzi: Alert but contagion is not easy

The autochthonous case of Dengue registered in Brescia “puts everyone on alert. We must highlight, however, that Dengue virus fever is not transmitted from person to person, but only if you are bitten by an infected mosquito. This is why prevention must be done first. Dengue is typically transmitted by the African mosquito Aedes aegypti, which we do not have in Italy. Occasionally our tiger mosquito can be a vector, but for its blood meal it needs 2 microliters of blood, which is why it bites multiple times. If on these occasions it bites an infected person and then immediately another uninfected person, this is the transmission of Dengue”, epidemiologist Massimo Ciccozzi told Adnkronos Salute, who recalls that “it is absolutely wrong to keep stagnant water in the house or on the terraces: it really only takes a little to give hospitality to mosquitoes. Let’s avoid it”.