Il January 30, 2024 World Day to Fight Neglected Infectious Diseases is celebrated which represent a group of very different infections that can be caused mainly by parasites, but also by bacteria, viruses, fungi and snake bite poisoning. The objective of this anniversary is to promote, spread and strengthen knowledge of these pathologies that have been forgotten for too long, increasing their prevention and control, as hoped for by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Also this year theInfectious Diseases Operational Unit of the University Hospital of Ferrara, directed by Dr. Marco Lebanonre (in the photo), celebrate this day. In fact, the Department is busy on a daily basis – also making use of the collaboration of Clinical Microbiology Section of the Cona hospital – in the diagnosis, treatment, management and research of these emerging infectious diseases. The Service also participates in the Surveillance System which is included in the National Register of Leishmaniasis cases.
“It is important that the fight against infectious diseases is neglected – highlights Dr. Lebanonre – is also an objective for our healthcare. Due to migratory phenomena and international travel, in fact, we must be increasingly aware that the phenomenon is expanding and requires a multidisciplinary approach which, as far as control strategies at community level are concerned, involve, in addition to medicine, sciences such as entomology, veterinary medicine, agriculture, engineering, anthropology and sociology. It is important to know that interventions for the control of neglected infectious diseases, such as preventive chemotherapy and the diagnosis and intensive treatment of cases, benefit both the individual (in whom the risk of developing the disease is reduced thanks to the drugs) but also the community, as it benefits from the treatment of the infection in the sick. Screening for these diseases in the categories most at risk, such as international travelers or migrants, is also fundamental.”
NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES they are often linked to poverty and social hardship and affect populations who live mainly in rural areas and far from health services. These are pathologies tend to be chronic and disabling, often associated with stigma and social exclusion. In fact, they are responsible for repeated epidemics that worsen the social and health conditions of the affected populations. Neglected or “forgotten” tropical diseases they affect over 1 billion people worldwide and cause over half a million deaths a year.
Even Italy is not immune, with more 4 thousand cases per year, underestimated compared to the real incidence, which is at least 10 times higher and places our country in fourth place for diffusion in the European area after England, France and Germany. In our country some of these pathologies are endemic, while others are present mainly as imported forms. These include Chagas disease, leprosy, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, dengue, echinococcosis, scabies and other ectoparasitoses.
These diseases are prevalent in tropical and subtropical areas, however, they are widespread throughout the world as a result of the mobility of people, foods, insects and animals. Considered individually, many of them do not appear to constitute a public health priority but, when analyzed together, they have a global health impact equal to more “famous” infectious diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.