Bassetti: “Cholera alarm? Wars best ally for infectious diseases”

“The best ally of infectious diseases are wars. These diseases typically affect poor socio-economic conditions and the social, economic and hygienic situation in Ukraine is unstable at the moment. And let’s not forget that Ukraine already had a membership. to very low vaccinations, the proof is that even before the war there were outbreaks of polio, measles. And now cholera. Evidently infectious diseases, especially those highly contagious or those easily spread in these conditions, have found fertile ground “. Matteo Bassetti, director of infectious diseases of the San Martino Polyclinic in Genoa, underlines this to Adnkronos Health. “In Italy we have to do is continue to vaccinate refugees arriving from Ukraine, without evaluating whether or not we have vaccinated: the entire vaccination cycle must be completely redone”, he remarked. “Measles, polio, cholera are diseases that can potentially be prevented by vaccination, but I repeat in Ukraine there was already a low propensity before. Europe, the whole world, must understand how much this risks becoming a difficult outbreak to manage, which could then inflame all of Eastern Europe. It is necessary to be very careful “, concludes the infectious disease specialist, recalling that” measles is becoming a problem not only for Ukraine at war: there is an increase in 80% of cases in the world, with major risks of epidemics “.