Rome, 1 July 2024 – On 26 June 2024, the first indigenous case of West Nile Virus (WNV) in humans manifesting itself in the neuro-invasive form was reported in Italy, in the province of Modena.
This is not an unexpected event. In our country, in fact, this virus circulates annually during the summer season, when mosquitoes of the genus are most active. Culex that transmit the infection.
A recent international study conducted by scientists from IRD, CNRS and MNHN highlighted that between 1975 and 2020, the total costs due to invasive mosquitoes, such as Aedes a Egypti e Aedes albopictusvectors of dengue fever, chikugunya and Zika virus, amount to approximately 94.7 billion dollars, for an average annual cost of 3.29 billion dollars, with a peak of 20.9 billion dollars in 2013.
Scientists point out that the costs associated with losses and damages caused by mosquito-borne diseases are underestimated because they are rarely quantified or reported in many countries and are therefore based solely on actual costs reported in the scientific literature.
These costs have literally exploded since the early 2000s, while investments in the management and prevention of emerging health risks, through monitoring, vector control and other preventive actions, including vaccine development, have remained stable, consistently lower than costs of damages and represent only a fraction of the total costs.
“It no longer surprises us that there have been no strategies to save the NHS and public health, but we cannot understand how health economists, always generous with restrictive suggestions on health spending, applying their business theories have never noticed, measuring them with proverbial accuracy, the costs of the absence of effective prevention initiatives to reduce health spending, in addition to avoiding pathologies that depress the work potential and GDP production of thousands of people” commented the National Secretary of the Italian Union of Veterinarians in Public Medicine – SIVeMP, Aldo Grasselli.
“The costs highlighted by the study must be added to the health damage suffered by people, to whom, instead, we should guarantee the greatest protection of the integrity of their health, reducing the fruitless costs generated by the treatment of pathologies. Prevention is advantageous, but it does not receive the right attention” concludes Grasselli.
