Cases of Dengue fever are multiplying in Singapore. What is the disease? What are the symptoms? Let’s find out everything in detail.
The news coming from Singapore is certainly not positive. In recent weeks, in fact, cases of Dengue fever have multiplied enormously, a disease well known in that region, which is transmitted after the bite of a mosquito present in tropical regions, namely that of yellow fever (the mosquito ‘Aedes aegypti ‘). However, the disease can also be transmitted by the tiger mosquito (Aedes ‘albopictus’).
But what does Dengue fever involve? This disease is also called ‘bone-breaking fever’. The reasons are quite intuitive: very high fever, headache and painful muscle and joint problems. According to the latest revelation, more than 11,000 people in Singapore have already contracted Dengue fever following a mosquito bite. Cases in sharp growth compared to recent years. Yes, because this is not a new disease. Indeed, in that area of the world it is already an endemic disease. This disease develops only in certain hot and humid climates, with the proliferation of these dangerous insects.
In the 5-6 days following the sting, the disease can come out asymptomatically or revealing its symptoms. In recent days, Singapore also recorded the first death due to Dengue fever.
Dengue fever in Singapore. What risks do we run in Italy?
But what risk do we run in Europe? There are many people who are worried and are asking disturbing questions. After the Covid-19 pandemic, everyone gets upset at the slightest alarm. However, many virologists and experts in the field have wanted to reassure public opinion.
But in Italy do we have to worry? Giovanni Maga – virologist and director of the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Cnr of Pavia – has released some important statements to beraking latest news, explaining how it is useless to be alarmed too much. These are his words: “At the root of the increase in cases of Dengue fever in Singapore are climatic factors that have favored the reproduction of tiger mosquitoes, the vector of the virus. In our latitudes, however, we need not worry. Every year we have dozens of imported Dengue cases, people who get infected in endemic areas and then fall ill at home. We have never had epidemic outbreaks, contrary to what happened, with small epidemics, for Chikungunya, always transmitted by mosquitoes ”.
It’s still: “The carrier has been in Italy since the 1990s. There may be a risk of transmission, but surveillance has been active for some time ”.
The difficulty of transmitting Dengue in our country is also confirmed by the infectious disease specialist Federico Gobbi: “The island of Madeira and a small area on the Black Sea coast are the only regions in Europe where the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the main vector of dengue, is endemic. In the rest of the continent, for now, the disease is transmitted, in a less effective way, by the tiger mosquito, giving rise to outbreaks fed by people who have returned home after they have been infected in countries where the disease circulates “.