Severe streptococcal infections in Liguria “led to 57 total cases in 15 months in the two-year period 2023-2024, with 8 deaths”. San Martino di Genova, who today presented the data in the Liguria Region. “Compared to the past – he explains – we are seeing more and more aggressive ones, rapid forms, cases where there was a death in 24 hours. A signal that streptococcus seems to have mutated with a more aggressive variant. We also see what is happening in Japan, but we don’t call it ‘meat-eating’ because it is not correct. They are highly serious forms of toxic shock – specifies the expert – like the 4 experienced in Liguria which led to 3 deaths.”
«We must be vigilant – warns the infectious disease specialist – In Liguria we have a surveillance service coordinated by me. There is a problem in Italy too. We must not terrorism on travel to Japan, but be careful and raise awareness among people. We need an adequate ability to intercept serious cases with multidisciplinary teams including surgeons. They are time-dependent pathologies that require urgent interventions in the operating room.”
But it’s not just streptococcus that is worrying in Liguria, now measles is also added. «Here in Liguria, in Genoa in particular, we have an ongoing measles epidemic with 5 cases in the last week, all unvaccinated, aged between 25 and 50. We must pay great attention to measles: we expect many epidemic outbreaks in the coming months and even in the summer we could have a very high spread because there is a large susceptible population”, said Matteo Bassetti. «There are all the characteristics to talk about a next epidemic in Italy – he adds worried – vaccination coverage lower than the target, high circulation of citizens of Eastern European countries in the 20-40 age group with a coverage percentage below 50 %. We are seeing that the spread is in clusters born during parties, in schools and in kindergartens.” The appeal is to get vaccinated.
