In Italy in 2024 there will be 3 confirmed cases of Chikungunya, all associated with foreign travel, the average age was 46, 67% male and there were no deaths. The point on the viral disease is present on the dedicated page of the Higher Institute of Health which monitors arbovirosis in Italy, the latest bulletin is for April. There Chikungunya is characterized by fever and severe pain and is transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes, particularly of the Aedes genus.
The first anti-Chikungunya vaccine approved by the EMA and to be used to protect adults aged 18 and over, “it is an additional weapon in the fight to prevent this disease which has a global impact and will be useful especially in endemic areas for this viral disease which records millions of cases every year. This vaccine had already been approved in November 2023 by the American FDA. It is a single-dose live attenuated vaccine and the published data on neutralizing antibodies demonstrate good safety and efficacy”. So at Adnkronos Salute Alessandra D’Abramomedical director of the High Intensity Infectious Diseases department of the INMI Spallanzani From Rome.
“In 2017 there was an epidemic of Chikungunya in Lazio with over 400 cases, previously in Emilia Romagna in 2007 – he recalls – Here in Italy we have the vector, the tiger mosquito, and therefore when there is an importation of the virus” by a traveler returning from endemic areas “it is easy for it to spread”. The vaccine alone “however, does not help, against arbovirosis we need combined action and integrated strategies, i.e. the vaccine and a prevention policy on the spread of the vector”, she concludes.
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