There are 21 neglected tropical diseases (or NTDs) in the world and the affected population reaches 1.7 billion people. “In Italy we have two of these native pathologies, leishmaniasis and cystic echinoccosis, but ours is a country at risk for Ntds due to climate change and the introduction of the potentially susceptible vector for some of these pathologies due to arbovirusfor example Dengue and Chikungunya”. So to Adnkronos Salute Emanuele Nicastri, director of the UOC High Intensity of Treatment Infectious Diseases (MIAIC) of the INMI Spallanzani in Rome which today, on the occasion of the World Day of Neglected Tropical Diseases, is hosting a seminar dedicated to this group of very different pathologies caused mainly by parasites, but also by bacteria, viruses, fungi and snakebite poisoning. Among the 21 pathologies, we are talking about Chagas disease, leprosy, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, dengue and cystic echinoccocosis.
Second data from the Higher Institute of Healthfrom January 1st to December 31st 2023, “362 confirmed cases of Dengue were recorded in Italy (82 indigenous cases and 280 cases associated with travel abroad, median age of 37 years, 52% male and 1 death); 9 confirmed cases of Zika Virus (all associated with foreign travel, median age 30 years, 44% male, no deaths); 7 confirmed cases of Chikungunya (all associated with foreign travel, median age 42 years , 71% male, no deaths)”.
Unknown diseases, that's why they are taking hold in Italy
Why are diseases unknown in our latitudes increasingly taking hold in Italy? “The introduction of the vector is the 'sine qua non', in Italy there were no tiger mosquitoes until 20 years ago – specifies Nicastri – today it is present throughout the peninsula from the Alps to Sicily, if there is the vector it is only a question of time the transmission of pathologies such as Dengue or Chikungunya, as has happened. But it is a phenomenon not only in Italy but in the Mediterranean area. There is the emblematic case of Lazio which in the summer had three distinct outbreaks recorded at the same time, but it will no longer be a fortuitous case – he warns – It is the signal of a change that must put us on alert in the future”.
Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is an infectious disease caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. The disease is widespread in Central and South America and is transmitted mainly by the bite of bedbug-like insects and is the third most frequent parasitic disease in the world. “A few years ago this pathology was confined to Latin America – he recalls Fabrizio Bruschi, president of the Italian Society of Parasitology, among the speakers of the seminar -. Today you have entered into the screening of blood and organ donors because in Italy imported cases have been recorded due to Italians who have been in endemic areas. This makes us understand how diseases that were once so distant are no longer so today and the issue of prevention arises.”
Also among the speakers of the seminar Adriano Casulli, of the Infectious Diseases department of the Higher Institute of Health: “In the next G7 Health which will be led by Italy, we hope we can arrive at a single document on neglected tropical diseases, shared with our international network”.
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