AGI – Since the beginning of the year, four cases of imported dengue have been recorded in Umbria: three in the territory of the Umbria 1 Local Health Authority and one in the Umbria 2 Local Health Authority. Last year there were a total of two. This is what the Hygiene and Public Health Service of the Prevention Department of the Umbria 1 local health authority, directed by Dr. Igino Fusco Moffa, reports.
“We are witnessing a global increase in Dengue cases, currently particularly affecting the regions of the Americas (4.1 million cases in 2023 and already 5 million from the beginning of 2024) but also increasing in South-East Asia and in Saharan Africa. They are all areas that are destinations for work or tourist travel, especially in the summer period and, consequently, it is plausible to expect an increase in imported cases”, explains Igino Fusco Moffa.
“Dengue – he continues – is caused by four very similar viruses (Den-1, Den-2, Den-3 and Den-4) and is transmitted to humans by the bites of mosquitoes of the Aedes species which, in turn, point an infected person. There is therefore no direct contagion between humans, even if humans are the main host of the virus to others. In Italy and Umbria, Aedes albopictus, the so-called tiger mosquito, is now indigenous and is a competent vector for the transmission of the virus in case of infection of pregnant women”.
