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Twenty viruses surveilled, arrive from Africa and Asia, mosquito danger

2023-06-05T13:02:48.583Z

Highlights: Special surveillance 20 viruses around the world that are spreading fast. Those who come from Africa, but also from exotic countries, are worried. "We must not lower our guard," says Fabrizio Pregliasco, medical director of the IRCCS Galeazzi Hospital. The focus is on Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya, and West Nile viruses, which are part of arboviruses, a group of viruses that are transmitted to humans through mosquito bites.


Special surveillance 20 viruses around the world that are spreading fast. Those who come from Africa, but also from exotic countries, are worried. "We must not lower our guard. (ANSA)


Special surveillance 20 viruses around the world that are spreading fast.
Those who come from Africa, but also from exotic countries, are worried. "We must not lower our guard. It is necessary to reinforce the pandemic plans," Fabrizio Pregliasco, medical director of the IRCCS Galeazzi Hospital, told ANSA.
Virologists around the world are therefore no longer concerned only by Covid-19 and its variants. Alongside the mutations of SARS-CoV-2, infectious disease experts are monitoring 20 viruses, "potentially pandemic", which arrive mainly from Africa, but which are no longer endemic and are spreading quickly to other countries, passing from Indonesia to Brazil, from Central America to China, with a speed that worries the WHO. The focus is on Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya, and West Nile viruses, which are part of arboviruses, a group of viruses that are transmitted to humans through mosquito bites.
In Italy there have already been outbreaks in the past, especially in the summer of 2022 and, with increasing temperatures, they risk spreading even more. But alongside these, the Marburg virus, spread mainly between Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea, for which the WHO has already reported the risk of a new pandemic, and avian influenza, with cases in Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and China, are also coming forward. "It is true that the attention on the Marburg virus is very high - says Pregliasco who is also associate professor of General and Applied Hygiene at the University of Milan - causes a hemorrhagic fever with very high mortality, such as Ebola. The virus is mutating fast. The strains lowered lethality but acquired greater diffusive capacity. This must warn us of a possible new epidemic. Attention is also high on Avian. Data on the disease spread among animals in Brazil has put the country's government on alert. Before there were more limited outbreaks, now there are larger episodes. There is a fear that a new variant could spread to humans." In general, the increase in Yellow Fever outbreaks in African countries is also worrying; the spread of measles in Ethiopia and Indonesia, cholera outbreaks in Africa, Central America and the Middle East; Lassa fever, Diphtheria and Meningitis, for now limited to Nigeria; Poliovirus type 2, for which there has been a significant increase in cases not only in Africa but also in Indonesia. And again, the cases of Acute Hepatitis E in South Sudan, Ebola in Uganda, Nipah Virus in Bangladesh, MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), Iatrogenic Botulism and Enterovirus Infection, which in the United Kingdom, at the beginning of May, were associated with a significant increase in severe myocarditis in newborns. "The pandemic has taught us that we must not lower our guard - says Pregliasco - Pandemic plans must be reinforced. It is necessary to introduce more systematic surveillance, coordinated monitoring at veterinary level. We have to resort to sewage analysis, because it can give us a lot of information about the presence of the virus. Finally, communication and information must continue. Especially in view of the summer, when the alert level is lowered and we travel more in exotic countries".


Source: ansa

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