Warnings have been issued after cases of a serious illness brought back from a holiday hotspot have been detected in Europe. The Foreign Office-backed travel health pro website said three cases of dengue fever have been reported in Italy since June 10.
Dengue fever is a potentially lethal infection spread by mosquitoes. It was called ‘bone break fever’ in the 1700s due to the severe pain it causes in muscles and joints.
In each case, travellers had visited popular resort Sharm El-Sheik, in Egypt, for a short holiday in May 2024. Anyone going to Egypt is now being warned about the symptoms.
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Symptoms generally begin to appear four to 10 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. Dengue does not always cause symptoms immediately.
Some dengue symptoms are similar to flu, according to the NHS. They include:
- High temperature
- Severe headache
- Pain behind your eyes
- Muscle and joint pain
- Feeling or being sick
- Swollen glands
- Blotchy rash made up of flat or slightly raised spots – this can affect large areas of your body
Some people can get a more severe type of dengue a few days after they first start feeling unwell but this is rare. You may start to feel better, with your temperature returning to normal.
But about 24 to 48 hours later you may get more serious symptoms. Symptoms of severe dengue include:
- Severe tummy pain
- Repeatedly being sick
- Fast breathing
- Bleeding gums or nose
- Extreme tiredness (fatigue)
- Being unable to relax (restlessness)
- Blood in your vomit or poo
There has also been an outbreak involving people from France. Many had returned from Guadeloupe or Martinique, which the country has old colonial links with.
France has reported 600 cases of dengue fever since last month. Climate change is said to be enabling the spread of diseases such as dengue and cholera.
It is also said to be increasing the pathogens’ reach into new territories. Argentina has seen the largest rise with a 151-fold increase in dengue cases from 3,220 in 2019 to 488,035 so far this year.
As mosquitos move northward, there have been more cases in southern Europe. Italy has seen a significant increase with its first locally acquired case detected in 2020 to 67 cases in 2023.
In France, there were 65 reported cases, up from 9 in 2019 – a 7.2-fold increase. Airfinity’s Biorisk analyst Kristan Piroeva said: “Cases of dengue, which most people think of as a tropical disease, are growing in non-endemic countries.
“As temperatures continue to rise, we could see the disease becoming endemic in southern Europe. Airfinity’s global overview of dengue incidence shows nearly half the world’s population may now be at risk of dengue infection.
“An increase in surveillance and testing for disease also plays a significant role in today’s analysis. By enhancing our monitoring capabilities, we can better track the spread of these diseases and implement timely interventions to mitigate their impact.”
Scientists have warned that more than half of the world’s population could be at risk of catching diseases transmitted by mosquitoes such as malaria and dengue by the end of the century. In the UK, figures released by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) indicate that imported malaria cases last year topped 2,000 for the first time in more than 20 years.
It said there were 2,004 cases of malaria confirmed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2023 following travel abroad, compared to 1,369 in 2022. According to the UKHSA, the rise is linked to the resurgence of malaria in some countries and an increase in overseas travel following pandemic restrictions being removed.
Globally, the number of dengue cases reported to the World Health Organisation has increased eight-fold in the last two decades – from 500,000 in 2000 to more than five million in 2019.
In Europe, mosquitoes carrying dengue have invaded 13 European countries since 2000, with local spread of the disease seen in France, Italy, and Spain in 2023. Researchers said that until recently, dengue was largely confined to tropical and subtropical regions because freezing temperatures kill mosquito’s larvae and eggs.
Rachel Lowe, a professor at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies in Spain, said: “Global warming due to climate change means that the disease vectors that carry and spread malaria and dengue can find a home in more regions, with outbreaks occurring in areas where people are likely to be immunologically naive and public health systems unprepared. The stark reality is that longer hot seasons will enlarge the seasonal window for the spread of mosquito-borne diseases and favour increasingly frequent outbreaks that are increasingly complex to deal with.”