VIROLOGY
Tropical diseases on our doorstep: is it time to wake up?
With increasing travel post-COVID-19 coupled with a warming planet, tropical diseases and the viruses that cause them are closer to UK shores than ever. Dr Neil Bentley looks at the increasing prevalence and spread of dengue fever and the barriers to correct diagnosis.
As we recover from the recent pandemic, global travel is on the increase again. However, our holiday memories and pictures are not the only things that we can bring back home with us. Infectious diseases caused by a plethora of microorganisms are endemic in many
of the countries we visit. To further compound this, our insistence in heating up the planet via carbon emission is bringing diseases previously only seen in tropics and subtropics closer to home.
As an example, Aedes mosquitoes,
one of the vectors carrying a number of viruses including dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika, are now on our doorstep. Italy, Spain and France in continental Europe have recently reported non-travel related dengue cases.1
The World Health Organization
(WHO) is concerned about the spread and is now monitoring the clinical diseases and epidemiology associated with these viruses.2
It is only a matter
of time before we see our own non- travel related infection cases within the United Kingdom. Do we have the knowledge, diagnostic capability and awareness in our hospitals and laboratories to detect and manage these diseases? Is it now time to get smarter with sometimes forgotten tropical diseases?
Growing risks
An example of a disease that can be transmitted by the Aedes mosquito and the focus of this paper is the dengue virus, which is classified as the most prevalent mosquito-borne viral disease in the world.3
half the world’s population are now at risk of contracting the dengue virus.4
It is suggested that nearly It
is a member of the Flaviviridae family and is an enveloped, single-stranded, positive-sense RNA virus. There are currently four distinct genotypes, types DENV1 to DENV4 and WHO considers dengue as a major global public health challenge.5
From 2000 to 2019
The Aedes mosquito is the main vector of dengue virus in Europe, and has been able to establish itself in southern Europe.
WWW.PATHOLOGYINPRACTICE.COM JUNE 2024
it documented a 10-fold increase in cases worldwide, rising from 500,000 to 5.2 million, with 2019 marking an unprecedented peak.5 There was a decline in reported cases between 2020 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a subsequent upsurge in 2023, with multiple outbreaks and spread to regions previously
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James Gathany, USCDCP /
Pixnio.com
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