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- Published on: 21 July 2022
- Published on: 21 July 2022West Nile virus and arthropod-borne pathogens, a One Health-based approach is needed!
Dear Editor,
The cases of human encephalitis by West Nile virus (WNV) recently diagnosed in northern Italy (Emilia Romagna and Veneto Regions), two of which occurred in elderly patients who experienced a fatal outcome (unpublished data), deserve special concern. This should apply, more in general, to the eco-epidemiology of all arthropod-borne infections, many of which are of zoonotic relevance. We are dealing, in fact, with a large group of viral (Zika virus, Dengue virus, Yellow Fever virus, Tick-Borne Encephalitis viruses, etc.), bacterial (Ehrlichia spp.) and protozoan (Plasmodium malariae, Leishmania spp., Trypanosoma spp., etc.) pathogens, a portion of whose life cycle takes place in an invertebrate host (insect or tick), from which the infectious agent, once acquired from an infected human or animal host, will be subsequently transferred to another susceptible, human or animal, host.
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As far as WNV is specifically concerned, this zoonotic flaviviral pathogen showed up for the first time in Italy in 1998, thereby giving rise to a series of encephalomyelitis cases among horses from Tuscany Region (1).
Culex spp. mosquitoes - namely Culex pipiens - represent the main WNV vectors. Indeed, successful virus isolation has been obtained from Culex spp. mosquito pools recently sampled in Veneto Region (unpublished data).
Numerically speaking, arthropod-borne pathogens account for approximately two thirds of the biological noxae responsible for "e...Conflict of Interest:
None declared.