The ECDC alarm on mosquitoes and ticks:«It's an invasion, we will have more cases of Dengue, Chikungunya and West Nile»

The European Center for Disease Control speaks of the risk linked to the rain and heat of these weeks

Mosquitoes and ticks, there is a real invasion in Italy.The first findings of the Italian zooprophylactic institutes demonstrate this:the former have tripled, while the latter are spreading both in the city and in the hills.There are 34 deaths out of 723 cases of infection from West Nile counted last year in Italy due to the common Culex specimen.The common mosquito, explains today to The Press Gianni Rezza, epidemiologist and director of Prevention at the Ministry of Health, became a carrier of the virus «through birds coming from central Africa.In 80% of cases it does not cause any symptoms, in 19% it causes fever but in one case out of a hundred it generates encephalitis with even fatal outcomes." Rezza remember that the virus is not transmitted from man to man but the heat and rain of these last few days increase the proliferation of specimens.

Geographical diffusion

The director of the ECDC, the European Center for Disease Control, Andrea Ammon raises the alarm on the pages of the Turin newspaper:“In recent years we have seen a geographical spread of invasive mosquito species into previously unaffected areas in Europe.”And again:“If this continues we can expect to see more cases and deaths possible from diseases such as Dengue, Chikungunya and West Nile fever.Efforts must focus on ways to control mosquito populations, improve surveillance and apply personal protection measures."So far the ISS has recorded three cases of West Nile positivity in Catania, Ravenna and Varese.Probably because you are not encouraged to move while still having large reserves of water available.However, the number of mosquitoes, the experts explain on the pages of La Stampa, is destined to grow given the heat wave.

In Italy:from the common culex to imported mosquitoes

Meanwhile, the heat is increasing the cases of imported specimens, as well as ticks and locusts.«Insects – explains Alessandro Miani, president of the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine – which find their natural habitat both in the terminal part of the vegetation, such as the branches of trees and plants that descend downwards, and in uncultivated grass.Attracted by the carbon dioxide that we emit through breathing and through bites and stings, they can be vectors of even serious viral or bacterial diseases, such as encephalitis, Lyme disease, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever or Mediterranean button fever, Chikungunya, anaplasmosis and more ».«The local culex mosquito – explains Rezza – carrier of the West Nile virus, bites at night, while the tiger imported from Asia and carrier of Chikungunya and Dengue attacks instead in the cooler hours of the evening and early morning, after having proliferated in humid environments, like the saucers of our plants."

The two mints present in Italy

Not only that, Rezza also explains how in Italy there are two different types of ticks, for example.«Dog fever, typical of dry and hot climates, such as those of Sicily and Sardinia, which can cause fever and the so-called Carducci's exanthematous disease, which is treated with antibiotics.In Italy, especially in the Triveneto area, the woodland tick is widespread, which in some rare cases can cause encephalitis and which usually proliferates around 400-600 metres, even at higher altitudes in the heat."How to protect ourselves from this summer invasion?The ECDC explains it:eliminate sources of stagnant water, use ecological larvicides, use mosquito nets (treating them with insecticides), use insect repellents and clothing to cover the whole body.