Italy battles imported viral epidemic

ROME, Sep 7 (Reuters) A small region in northern Italy is battling what may be Europe's first epidemic of the crippling, mosquito-borne Chikungunya virus, a senior official at the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS) told Reuters.

About 160 cases have been confirmed in Italy and another 30 victims of the non-fatal but painful disease are suspected, said Antonio Cassone, the ISS's director of the department of Infectious, Parasitic and Immune-Mediated Diseases.

Symptoms include high fever, joint and muscular pain, severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, body aches and a rash similar to that seen in dengue fever patients. Still, it is not believed to be fatal in itself.

Cassone said Italy and other European states had previously detected cases of Chikungunya inside their borders, but only among people who had been infected abroad, particularly in Africa and India.

''This is the first time that in Europe we have an epidemic. That means local transmission, not only importation of a case,'' said Cassone.

''We had in the past several important cases, but the diseases stopped with the (carrier). The person coming from the affected area in India or Africa just had the fever, but there was no local transmission.'' INDIAN TOURIST Cassone said researchers identified a man from southern India as the possible source of the virus, which started spreading in July in the small northern Italian hamlet of Castiglione, in Ravenna province.

Mosquitoes bit the man while he was staying with relatives in Castiglione. The bugs then spread the virus to the four other people in the house, infecting all of them.

Cassone said that one 86-year-old man died after contracting the virus, but that the patient had already been hospitalised and was very ill.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says no deaths from Chikungunya have been documented in scientific literature.

Regional authorities have said efforts to contain the virus had so far been largely successful, adding the rate of infection had dropped sharply since mid-August.

Cassone said there were no travel restrictions being placed on residents from the affected areas. But they were advised to be vigilant to possible symptoms of the virus and take measures to ward off mosquitoes, like using repellent.

The World Health Organisation is in close contact with Italian authorities on the issue, a press officer said.

REUTERS ARB ND0920