Resurgence of scabies in Italy: The new life of an old disease

IF 2 Q3 INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Parasite Epidemiology and Control Pub Date : 2024-11-01 DOI:10.1016/j.parepi.2024.e00392

Antonio Laganà , Ilaria Saia , Giovanni Genovese , Giuseppa Visalli , Giuseppa D'Andrea , Salvatore Sidoti , Angela Di Pietro , Alessio Facciolà

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Scabies, an old parasitic disease with a worldwide presence, has witnessed a recent resurgence in many parts of the world even in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a study on this resurgence in the Italian province of Messina, Sicily, evaluating the general features of affected people to better understand the possible modes of transmission. Specifically, we considered all the scabies notifications made in the period 2003–2022. Then, we focused on those cases occurred in the three-years period 2020–2022 carrying out an active surveillance by calling patients and asking them questions about their recent habits and movements and their consequent chances of contracting the disease. In total, 935 cases of scabies were reported from 2003 to 2022, with a remarkable increase between 2020 and 2022, when 288 cases were reported. Of these patients, we were able to reach by phone 240 (83.3 %) and interview them. Students were the most affected group (24.1 %), followed by retirees (21.0 %) and healthcare workers (13.2 %). Unfortunately, concerning the possible mode of transmission, more than half (58.5 %) of patients were not able to understand the real source of their infection. When known, the most common ways of transmission were a familiar origin (10.7 %) followed by causes linked to health environments (nursing home stays and hospital admissions). Moreover, 66.9 % of all the reported cases were part of an outbreak. Larger outbreaks occurred in healthcare facilities for more than half of the cases (69.4 %), the majority of which (88.9 %) were in nursing homes. Our research confirms the resurgence of scabies in our territory similar to trends in other European countries. Some critical factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, probably played a key role in influencing this epidemiological trend and showed the importance of always monitoring the epidemiology of all notifiable diseases to enable prompt action by competent authorities to limit their spread to the community.

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疥疮在意大利死灰复燃：旧病复发

疥疮是一种存在于世界各地的古老寄生虫病，即使在 COVID-19 大流行的情况下，疥疮最近也在世界许多地方死灰复燃。我们对意大利西西里岛墨西拿省的疥疮复发情况进行了研究，评估了患者的一般特征，以更好地了解可能的传播方式。具体来说，我们考虑了 2003-2022 年间的所有疥疮病例。然后，我们重点关注了 2020-2022 年这三年期间发生的病例，通过给患者打电话，询问他们最近的生活习惯和活动情况，以及他们因此感染该疾病的几率，对这些病例进行了主动监测。2003 年至 2022 年期间，共报告了 935 例疥疮病例，其中 2020 年至 2022 年期间显著增加，报告了 288 例。在这些患者中，我们通过电话联系到 240 人（83.3%）并对他们进行了访谈。学生是受影响最大的群体（24.1%），其次是退休人员（21.0%）和医护人员（13.2%）。遗憾的是，关于可能的传播方式，半数以上（58.5%）的患者无法了解其感染的真正来源。如果知道，最常见的传播途径是熟悉的来源（10.7%），其次是与健康环境有关的原因（住养老院和住院）。此外，66.9%的报告病例属于疫情爆发。超过一半的病例（69.4%）是在医疗机构中爆发的，其中大部分（88.9%）发生在疗养院。我们的研究证实，疥疮在我国再次爆发的趋势与其他欧洲国家相似。包括 COVID-19 大流行在内的一些关键因素可能在影响这一流行病学趋势方面发挥了关键作用，并表明了始终监测所有应通报疾病流行病学的重要性，以便主管当局能够迅速采取行动，限制其在社区的传播。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Parasite Epidemiology and Control Medicine-Infectious Diseases

CiteScore

5.70

自引率

3.10%

发文量

审稿时长

17 weeks

期刊介绍： Parasite Epidemiology and Control is an Open Access journal. There is an increasing amount of research in the parasitology area that analyses the patterns, causes, and effects of health and disease conditions in defined populations. This epidemiology of parasite infectious diseases is predominantly studied in human populations but also spans other major hosts of parasitic infections and as such this journal will have a broad remit. We will focus on the major areas of epidemiological study including disease etiology, disease surveillance, drug resistance and geographical spread and screening, biomonitoring, and comparisons of treatment effects in clinical trials for both human and other animals. We will also look at the epidemiology and control of vector insects. The journal will also cover the use of geographic information systems (Epi-GIS) for epidemiological surveillance which is a rapidly growing area of research in infectious diseases. Molecular epidemiological approaches are also particularly encouraged.