A new health alarm shakes Italy: this is what is hidden behind the so -called Como virus and which risks brings with it.
An evocative name, which recalls immortal pages of the literature and memories of distant epidemics.
There is talk of the “Comasco virus”, a label that seems to have come out of the Promessi Sposi. “On that branch of Lake Como …”
But what is hiding behind this definition that recalls dark scenarios of pestilence and illness?
The realityas often happens, is different from how it appears at first sight. Here’s what it really is.
The mysterious Como virus: suggestions and fears of new pandemics
The nickname “Como Virus” was born from a imaginative association: Lake Como, Manzonian scenario of plague and suffering, becomes a symbol of a new health spectrum. A term that affects imagination, creating alarm and curiosity. But what is told is not an unknown disease ready to spread, but one metaphor which binds literature and topicality.
Behind the suggestive name there is no pathogen Unknown, but the reflection of a phenomenon that repeats itself cyclically: the arrival of the flu season and fears that brings with it. The attention of doctors and health institutions is in fact focused on a combination of flu viruses, which in some cases can put a strain on the estate of hospitals. And it is precisely from here that the parallel is born, as disturbing as evocative.
Influence alarm: the data that come from afar but also concern us
The real alarm concerns the peak of cases of influence in Australia, where winter has already shown its strength. Over 18 thousand reports by July, 50% increased hospitalizations in just two weeks and an increase of 70% compared to the previous year have put hospitals in serious difficulty. A picture that, according to experts, could also replicate in Italia in the coming months.
To worry is above all the diffusion of strain B, towards which the vaccination coverage appears insufficient. With numbers of this type, it is estimated that in the absence of prevention our country could come to count 15-20 million contagues, with significant consequences on the health system. Precisely for this, the Ministry of Health He has already prepared the vaccination campaign that will start in October. The goal is to reach at least 75% of the population at risk, offering the vaccine for free for the elderly, children, pregnant women, health workers and people with chronic pathologies. A fundamental choice to reduce the impact of a season that, according to the signals, could prove to be among the most demanding of recent years.
