In Italy, between 4,000 and 5,000 people have suffered from tropical diseases in recent times, an underestimated threat that is growing continuously, an expert warned recently.

Rome.- Federico Gobbi, director of the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the Sacro Cuore Hospital, in the northern city of Verona, in the Veneto region, said in statements published on the specialized news website Insalutenews, that the spread of dengue and chikungunya is of particular concern.

As a consequence of climate change, the spread of the tiger mosquito, which transmits both diseases, has increased in Italy, and in the case of dengue fever, Europe’s record of autochthonous cases was set in 2023, according to surveillance data from the Superior Institute of Health, said the expert, who predicted that the situation will worsen.

In 2023, 82 autochthonous cases of the disease were reported in Italy, as well as 280 cases imported by travelers who returned from places where the disease is endemic, in addition to seven cases of chikungunya, he said.

It is necessary to pay attention to these two diseases in Italy since climate change has increased temperatures and created ideal conditions for the proliferation of the Aedes albopictus or tiger mosquito, which arrived in Genoa and Padua from the United States in 1990 and then spread throughout the country. (PL)