Chagas disease in Italy: updated estimates
- PDF / 801,469 Bytes
- 5 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 54 Downloads / 165 Views
CE-RESEARCH LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Chagas disease in Italy: updated estimates Irene Campolmi1 · Andrea Angheben2 · Filomena Bruna Aliani3 · Michele Spinicci1 · Alessandro Bartoloni1 · Lorenzo Zammarchi1 Received: 28 March 2020 / Accepted: 27 May 2020 © Società Italiana di Medicina Interna (SIMI) 2020
Dear Editor, Chagas disease (CD), otherwise called American trypanosomiasis, is a potentially lethal disease, caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. It is mainly transmitted through vectorial route, by bloodsucking insects of the subfamily Triatominae, that typically live in cracks in the walls of mud and straw houses in rural Latin American communities [1]. The disease is considered endemic in 21 continental Latin American countries, where vectorial transmission is possible. Around 6–7 million people are affected and 14,000 are estimated to die every year because of cardiac, digestive or nervous system related complications [2]. CD is frequently asymptomatic for decades (so called indeterminate form) but may complicate with irreversible chronic organ damage such as arrhythmic and structural cardiomyopathy, megacolon, and megaesophagus in up to 40% of infected subjects [1]. Due to the chronic nature of the disease, and the migration flows from Latin American countries, the disease is now present even in non-endemic areas such as Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan, where 92–94% of affected people are not aware of their status [3]. In these contexts, vector-borne transmission does not take place (with the exception of sporadic cases in the Southern states of the United States), but transmission through transfusion and transplantation of solid organs, as well as * Lorenzo Zammarchi [email protected] 1
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Infectious and Tropical Diseases Unit, University of Florence, Careggi University and Hospital, Florence, Italy
2
Department of Infectious–Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, I. R. C. C. S, Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar Di Valpolicella, Verona, Italy
3
School of Human Health Sciences, Degree Course in Medicine and Surgery, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
maternal–fetal transmission are possible [3]. Oral transmission through consumption of fruit juice contaminated with Triatominae feces is also reported in endemic areas and exceptionally in returning travelers [1]. In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO), in its fourth report on neglected tropical diseases, stressed the importance of promoting interventions for CD control and elimination. This would be possible by preventing all transmission routes, both in endemic and non-endemic countries and by providing adequate medical care for affected populations, starting from the level of primary health care [1]. After the United States and Spain, Italy is the third non endemic country hosting the highest number of migrants from CD endemic countries [4]. In the last decade, in a framework characterized by a general increase in migratory flows to Italy,
Data Loading...
