here are the new health threats. The European report –

In addition to a possible return of Covid, other pathologies worry the health authorities. The European Environment Agency (EEA) in a recent publication highlighted the risks of climate change and rising temperatures which might facilitate the migration of infectious species. We are talking regarding Dengue and West Nile infections, which, although they have a low mortality rate, create concern. “The potential length of the Dengue transmission season – we read – might increase by approximately 1-2 months by 2080 in South-Eastern Europe”. In Italy, where developments in the spread are constantly monitored, the alert level was raised last February, when the Ministry of Health issued a circular to intensify surveillance of vehicles and goods coming from the countries with the greatest spread of Dengue ( Argentina, Brazil, Bangladesh, but not only), through disinfestation procedures in “airport and port areas”.

Data from the Higher Institute of Health (ISS) indicate that in 2023, 362 cases of this type of haemorrhagic fever were recorded in Italy, and the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, responding to a question on 22 February, explained that “48 confirmed cases” have already been found in 2024. However, “the situation is not alarming, we are alerted and are doing everything necessary”, assures the minister.

The main symptoms of Dengue are very high fever and violent muscle and joint pain. In severe cases it can lead to internal bleeding and death. The West Nile virus has similar manifestations, which in Italy was found in almost 300 people in 2023, with at least seventeen deaths. Under the lens of the ISS there are other diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and insects, such as “Chikungunya, Zika, Usutu, Tick-borne encephalitis (Tbe) and neuro-invasive infections from the Tuscany virus”.

Chikungunya, in particular, is transmitted by the tiger mosquito and, according to temperature projections developed by the EEA, might spread further in France and Italy. But that is not all. Avian influenza A(H5N1) has also returned to the epidemiological scenario, spread for now by wild birds outside Europe but entry into our borders and the involvement of mammals cannot be ruled out. Just in recent days, a case of human infection presumably caused by contact with dairy cows was reported in Texas in the United States. “The possibility that avian influenza viruses adapt to humans and cause a pandemic remains a concern”, clarified in recent days a report by EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority.