Post by account_disabled on Feb 25, 2024 2:39:37 GMT -5
They are a group of 20 diseases. Very diverse from each other, but with common characteristics: in the world, they affect more than one billion people and have "devastating consequences" for health, the economy and society, warns the World Health Organization (WHO) .
The WHO established January 30 as Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day . In the adjectives that accompany the noun, is its definition. Tropical because they prevail in those climates, but with the impact of global warming several are expanding to regions where they did not exist before. . And neglected because they barely appear in global health programs and a tiny percentage of investment in health and research is dedicated to addressing them.
13 of them are in Argentina . Their impact is dissimilar and ranges from some with very low prevalence (such as helminthiasis) to dengue fevers known to everyone, to other historical ones that still have an impact to be considered, such as leprosy or Chagas.
Many of these diseases, the WHO Country Email List points out, are transmitted by vectors , are associated with complex biological cycles and the pathogenic agent that causes them resides in an animal reservoir, factors that “ make it difficult to control from the point of view of public health.
VideoSome are advancing with climate change and others are almost eliminated.This is the case, for example, of Fury . “We have controlled the issue of rabies, we eliminated it in dogs and cats in the country. The problem today is a rabies that is difficult to control, which is associated with bats, since 3% of these animals carry the rabies virus," warns Tomás Orduna, former head of Tropical Medicine and Travel Medicine at the Muñiz Hospital and member of the Committee. Scientist at the Mundo Sano Foundation.
The tropical infectologist remembers that in 2021, and after 13 years, there was a death due to rabies: a policewoman died in Coronel Suárez from the bite of a stray cat that in turn had been bitten by a bat. She says that bats cannot be controlled because there are millions of individuals, but it is possible to control dogs and cats : “That is why we are committed to responsible animal ownership and continue to support vaccination” of pets.
Dengue and climate changeGiven the simplification that all tropical diseases are spread by climate change, Orduña clarifies the points.
Not everything is so easily related to climate change. Yes, there may be an influence, but we cannot know with certainty what the real weight of that potential impact will be. The clearest thing is the expansion of the presence of insect vectors . “We are seeing Aedes aegypti on route 2 arriving in Mar del Plata or on route 3 in Bahía Blanca, which clearly changed in 20 or 25 years when we had to start evaluating areas with dengue,” he points out.
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in a laboratory. It is the vector of dengue. Photo EFE/Thais Llorca
Dengue is probably the disease of this heterogeneous group that we have talked about and heard about the most in recent times . After a record season of cases in 2023, this summer the Aedes aegypti was also a problem due to the lack of repellents.
Between the last two weeks of 2023 and the first two weeks of 2024, we already have 11,000 cases in the NEA , almost half of them in Chaco and the rest distributed between Formosa, Corrientes and Misiones,” said Orduña. This is the first season in which the vaccine is available in the private sector: a representative has just presented a project to include it in the National Vaccination Schedule for all those who have previously contracted the virus.
The WHO established January 30 as Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day . In the adjectives that accompany the noun, is its definition. Tropical because they prevail in those climates, but with the impact of global warming several are expanding to regions where they did not exist before. . And neglected because they barely appear in global health programs and a tiny percentage of investment in health and research is dedicated to addressing them.
13 of them are in Argentina . Their impact is dissimilar and ranges from some with very low prevalence (such as helminthiasis) to dengue fevers known to everyone, to other historical ones that still have an impact to be considered, such as leprosy or Chagas.
Many of these diseases, the WHO Country Email List points out, are transmitted by vectors , are associated with complex biological cycles and the pathogenic agent that causes them resides in an animal reservoir, factors that “ make it difficult to control from the point of view of public health.
VideoSome are advancing with climate change and others are almost eliminated.This is the case, for example, of Fury . “We have controlled the issue of rabies, we eliminated it in dogs and cats in the country. The problem today is a rabies that is difficult to control, which is associated with bats, since 3% of these animals carry the rabies virus," warns Tomás Orduna, former head of Tropical Medicine and Travel Medicine at the Muñiz Hospital and member of the Committee. Scientist at the Mundo Sano Foundation.
The tropical infectologist remembers that in 2021, and after 13 years, there was a death due to rabies: a policewoman died in Coronel Suárez from the bite of a stray cat that in turn had been bitten by a bat. She says that bats cannot be controlled because there are millions of individuals, but it is possible to control dogs and cats : “That is why we are committed to responsible animal ownership and continue to support vaccination” of pets.
Dengue and climate changeGiven the simplification that all tropical diseases are spread by climate change, Orduña clarifies the points.
Not everything is so easily related to climate change. Yes, there may be an influence, but we cannot know with certainty what the real weight of that potential impact will be. The clearest thing is the expansion of the presence of insect vectors . “We are seeing Aedes aegypti on route 2 arriving in Mar del Plata or on route 3 in Bahía Blanca, which clearly changed in 20 or 25 years when we had to start evaluating areas with dengue,” he points out.
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in a laboratory. It is the vector of dengue. Photo EFE/Thais Llorca
Dengue is probably the disease of this heterogeneous group that we have talked about and heard about the most in recent times . After a record season of cases in 2023, this summer the Aedes aegypti was also a problem due to the lack of repellents.
Between the last two weeks of 2023 and the first two weeks of 2024, we already have 11,000 cases in the NEA , almost half of them in Chaco and the rest distributed between Formosa, Corrientes and Misiones,” said Orduña. This is the first season in which the vaccine is available in the private sector: a representative has just presented a project to include it in the National Vaccination Schedule for all those who have previously contracted the virus.