Twenty special supervised dangerous viruses – the threat of new pandemics

Twenty special supervised dangerous viruses - the threat of new pandemics

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Twenty viruses that could become pandemic. Now they are striking in different parts of the world, especially in Asia and Africa, but for experts they are potential ‘time bombs’. This is why they call them special surveillance and warn: “We must intervene, they are spreading rapidly, also thanks to climate change”.
Focusing on Italy, an increase in the risk and aggressiveness of climate-related infectious diseases is expected and in particular those caused by vectors such as mosquitoes – this is the case of malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya fever, West Nile fever – as well as diseases transmitted by sandflies (leishmaniasis) and ticks (Lyme disease, tick-borne encephalitis and human babesiosis).

This was stated by the Italian hygiene company (Siti), which on the occasion of World Environment Day (June 5) launched an appeal so that “local and national governments, in the light of environmental threats, exploit the skills of highly qualified professionals”.

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Threats that come from the environment

If the environment threatens us, viruses proliferate and with them diseases. So it is necessary, the hygienists ask, “to adopt a multidisciplinary and interprofessional approach from a One Health perspective, a health model that integrates different disciplines, based on the recognition that human, animal and ecosystem health are linked and mutually influence each other “.

“The Covid pandemic – they underline – has accelerated this awareness, demonstrating how strong the connection between health and the environment is and how interdependent each system is. Ecosystem changes, dictated by human activities, are capable of influencing multiple ways of transmission of infectious diseases, increasing the risk of new epidemics around the planet and increasingly changing the epidemiological landscape of some infectious diseases”.

Special guarded viruses

It is in this context that the most dangerous viruses are depopulated, under special surveillance all over the world, which are spreading rapidly. Those arriving from Africa are worrying, but others from exotic countries are no less suspicious.

Attention is focused on Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya, and West Nile, which are part of the arboviruses, a group that is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. In Italy there have already been outbreaks in the past, especially in the summer of 2022 and, as temperatures rise, they risk spreading even more massively.

Alongside them, other threats are aggressively making their way forward, such as the Marburg virus, spread above all between Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea, for which the WHO has already signaled the risk of a new pandemic, and avian flu, with cases in Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and China.

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What worries more

There is no lack of concern when looking in other directions: the increase in Yellow Fever outbreaks in African countries; the spread of measles in Ethiopia and Indonesia; outbreaks of cholera in Africa, Central America and the Middle East; Lassa Fever, Diphtheria and Meningitis, currently confined to Nigeria; Poliovirus type 2, for which there has been a significant increase in patients not only in Africa, but also in Indonesia. And again, the cases of Acute Hepatitis E in Southern Sudan, Ebola in Uganda, the Nipah Virus in Bangladesh, MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), Iatrogenic botulism and Enterovirus Infection, which in the United Kingdom, in early May, were associated with a marked increase in severe myocarditis in newborns.

Pregliasco: “The Covid pandemic teaches”

Among the experts who draw a future picture that is not exactly rosy is the virologist Fabrizio Pregliasco, director of the Galeazzi hospital in Milan. “The pandemic has taught us that we must not let our guard down – he repeats again today -. Pandemic plans must be strengthened. And it is necessary to introduce more systematic surveillance, coordinated monitoring at the veterinary level. We must resort to sewage analysis, because it can give us a lot of information on the presence of the virus. Finally, we need to continue to communicate and inform. Especially in view of the summer, when the guard level is lowered and we travel more to exotic countries”.

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In New York, Covid rears its head

Meanwhile, Covid rears its head. He happens in New York, where it seems that the hands of the clock have returned to months ago. Wastewater analyzes show signs of a recovery of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the Big Apple and surrounding areas. The 14 wastewater treatment plants in the city have indeed reported a high concentration of Covid, i.e. at least 50 or more cases per 100,000 people. Authorities confirm the increase in wastewater readings, but believe it is still too early to tell whether or not this indicates a new surge. And they monitor the situation.

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