Exotic viruses reach Europe

Fever as an indication of exotic viral diseases

06/06/2012

More and more people in Germany are suffering from germs unknown in Germany. „The number of new viral diseases in Germany is still very low“, but in the wake of global warming, growing travel, tourism and international goods transport, this could change rapidly, said the Secretary General of the German Association of Internal Medicine e. V. (DGIM), Professor med. Ulrich R. Fölsch from Kiel, in a recent press release.

„In case of fever without an explainable cause“ recommends the DGIM therefore „ also consider infection by new viruses.“ According to the experts, for example, the pathogens of „Chikungunya, Pappataci or West Nile fever in the coming years on to Europe and also to Germany.“ Often the affected patients turn to an internist because of the nonspecific symptoms such as fever, headache, cough, runny nose, tiredness and laxity with exotic viral diseases, according to the DGIM. When investigating fever diseases, physicians should therefore also consider new viral diseases and carry out the necessary tests in case of suspicion, emphasized the DGIM General Secretary, Prof. Dr. med. Flösch.

Mild winters promote the spread of exotic viral diseases
According to the experts, the reason for the spread of exotic viruses in Germany, for example, is the milder climate. Because the vectors of viruses are often ticks or mosquitoes and how strong they spread, depends on the weather, reports the DGIM with reference to a contribution by Prof. Dr. med. med. Emil C. Reisinger, Dean of the University of Rostock, in the German Medical Weekly Journal (DMW). Professor Reisinger used the example of tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) as an example to show that tick-borne viral diseases are more pronounced during two consecutive mild winters. For wild animals such as rabbits and deer, „which serve the ticks as well as humans as hosts“, multiply particularly in mild winters - and with them the ticks., so the statements in the press release of the DGIM.

As an example of the exotic viral diseases, which may soon be more common in Germany, the DGIM calls the Crimean Congo fever. Although nobody in this country has yet been infected with the potentially fatal tropical disease, researchers have been able to do so both in Holland and in Germany „its transmitter, the ticks Hyalomma and Rhipicephalus, the brown dog tick“, evidence, reports the DGIM. The Crimean Congo fever could therefore be imported from Southeastern Europe at any time. The exotic viral disease is associated with high fever and often with internal bleeding. The mortality rate of those infected reaches around 18 percent in some countries, such as Bulgaria.

Tiger mosquitoes as transmitters of tropical diseases
In addition to the Crimean Congo fever reached according to DGIM and the Chikungunya fever, which had last erupted in the metropolitan area of ​​the Indian Ocean, Europe. In 2007, for example, Chikungunya fever first broke out in Europe in the Italian region of Emilia Romagna, with 205 illnesses. The transmitter of the tropical disease is the Asian tiger mosquito, which, according to Professor Reisinger, has become native to the European Mediterranean. To spread the tiger mosquitoes, the expert explained that they frequently travel by car or train to distant regions. Thus, in Germany, the eggs of the tiger mosquito were first discovered along the A5 motorway near Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg. As the tiger mosquitoes also transmit the dengue fever, the experts are also threatening to increase their spread. Dengue fever is the „world's most common mosquito-borne viral disease“ and „was in Europe last 1927/1928 erupted in Greece“, reports the DGIM.

Furthermore, Sindbis viruses, the carriers of the Sindbis fever of the same name, have been detected in mosquitoes in Baden-Württemberg, according to the announcement of the German Society for Internal Medicine. „The New Influenza has shown us in 2009/2010 how quickly new viruses can spread“, emphasized the DGIM Secretary General, Professor Fölsch. Doctors should therefore also think of the exotic viral diseases in the diagnosis of unusual fever diseases. (Fp)

Also read:
Viruses in the meat cause of colon cancer
Dengue fever: Bacteria against viruses
Spread of the West Nile virus in Europe

Picture: Depeche