The Dengue mosquito alert has been triggered. The news of these days concerning Peru, Argentina, Guatemala and Brazil are triggering fear in Italy as well. "Italians are already running for cover," explains Marco Marcantoni, CEO of Sharknet, the Rome-based company that exports mosquito nets to more than 50 countries around the world. In recent days our switchboards have literally been stormed by our compatriots, frightened by the news that appeared in the newspapers". The Ministry of Health has ordered extraordinary control actions to prevent Aedes aegypti, a major culprit in the transmission of Dengue disease, from taking root in Italy. The controls specifically target planes and ships arriving from areas at risk. But the bad news is that widespread above-average temperatures, with highs as high as 25 degrees caused by intense warming of surface waters in the Pacific Ocean, combined with the rains of recent days, will bring mosquitoes as early as Easter.
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