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After the first circular in mid-February on anti-Dengue measures, the progression of cases at an international level, especially in Brazil, triggers a second circular. The document, drawn up by the Prevention Directorate of the Ministry of Health, envisages the “primary objective of preventing the vector” of Dengue, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, “from being introduced into Italy”. At the moment in our country in 2024 no “native” cases have been recorded, but all imported from abroad. Hence the measures that focus on the control and disinfestation of aircraft, but also of goods arriving from countries at risk. For now, however, no random tests for passengers as had been hypothesized in recent days
Checks at airports and ports on vehicles from countries at risk
A new circular has been published by the Ministry of Health on health surveillance measures against the dengue virus, with clarifications to the previous circular of 14 February 2024 with respect, among other things, to the surveillance of aircraft, boats and goods. «It is necessary first of all to specify that the health surveillance measures – we read – apply to means of transport and goods coming from countries where Aedes aegypti, the most competent vector for the transmission of dengue, is present, as well as from countries where the risk of contracting the disease is frequent and continuous, as reported by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For the supervision of aircraft, it is specified that aircraft that “come directly or indirectly with intermediate stops from countries or territories at risk must possess a residual disinfection certificate”.
Goods under control: from cut flowers to used tyres
With respect to the supervision of goods, the circular notes that «with regard to goods that may represent a risk for the importation of infected mosquitoes, (used tyres, fresh cut flowers and ornamental plants traveling in aquatic substrate, trunks of exotic wood in which even minimal quantities of water may persist, but nevertheless capable of allowing the survival and reproduction of insects, as per the PNA 2020-2025), it is underlined – we read again in the circular – that they must be accompanied by certifications attesting to the disinfestation at the time of their shipment from the affected areas, or they must be subjected, at the care and expense of the importers, to appropriate disinfestation treatments with insecticides before their nationalization”.
No alarm in Italy. In Brazil we are thinking about do-it-yourself tests
«In Italy there is no Dengue alarm, as Minister Orazio Schillaci has already reiterated. We have a duty to prevent and therefore prevent Aedes aegypti, the main cause of the transmission of the Dengue disease, from taking root in Italy.” Thus Francesco Vaia, director of the General Directorate of Prevention of the Ministry of Health. Which underlines how «our Usmaf operators, active in ports and airports, will verify that adequate prophylactic actions are implemented such as disinfection and disinfestation and, where necessary, will prescribe them». Meanwhile, Brazil is evaluating the possibility of introducing rapid ‘do-it-yourself’ tests for the diagnosis of dengue. The director of the Health Products Area of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), Daniel Pereira, stated in an interview with Cbn – that Anvisa is negotiating with the Ministry of Health to allow the use of home swabs. According to Pereira, two tests are in fact available: laboratory ones and rapid tests, but the latter requires a green light from the ministry.