He died at 69 Beppe Vessicchioconductor beloved by the public and symbolic face of Sanremo Festival. The maestro, hospitalized at San Camillo Forlanini in Rome, was struck down by rapidly evolving interstitial pneumonia. In 2022 he had contracted Covid-19, and already then he had confided that he had it “less than perfect lungs”. An expression that today, in light of the diagnosis, sounds like an omen. In an interview he recounted his origins in Bagnoli, a neighborhood of Naples marked by decades of environmental exposure to asbestos, where his father worked as an official of the former Plasterboard: “I was born and raised in Bagnoli… Asbestos everywhere. We played with asbestos tubs as children“. A story that returns the context of an industrial Italy where the health risk was invisible but widespread. And which today invites us to ask ourselves whether that early exposure could have contributed to the respiratory fragility who accompanied him until the end.
What is interstitial pneumonia
Table of Contents
With the term “interstitial pneumonia” does not indicate a single disease, but a heterogeneous group of pathologies that affect the pulmonary interstitium, i.e. the support tissue that surrounds the alveoli and capillaries. this tissue becomes inflamed and thickens, oxygen struggles to pass into the blood and the lung loses elasticity.
The cause
There may be several factors underlying the pathology:
– infectious, such as virus (SARS-CoV-2, influenza viruses, Mycoplasma, TB) or fungi;
– autoimmunelinked to connective tissue diseases (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma);
– environmental and professional, such as the chronic inhalation of asbestos, silica, dust metallic, grain o feathers animals;
– pharmacologicallinked to toxic reactions of chemotherapy or antibiotics.
I symptoms
Symptoms often start insidiously: dyspnea (shortness of breath) during efforts, persistent dry cough, asthenia and weight loss. Over time, breathing becomes increasingly difficult, leading to respiratory failure. On auscultation the characteristic sounds are heard “Velcro gasps.”
How to treat it
Treatment depends on the origin and stage of the disease. They are used in inflammatory or autoimmune cases corticosteroids e immunosuppressants to contain the damage. In progressive fibrotic cases, therapy focuses on antifibrotic drugs that slow the loss of lung function.
Il lung transplant today it remains the only truly curative option, but is reserved for selected patients.
In cases secondary to Covid-19, treatment includes oxygen therapy, respiratory rehabilitation and long-term monitoring.
The possible correlation with asbestos
Asbestos has long been recognized as an agent capable of causing asbestosis, a form of interstitial pulmonary fibrosis due to the chronic accumulation of respirable fibers. However, in recent years research has made it clear that The lines between asbestosis and idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (IPF) can be blurred.
A review published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states: “It has long been recognized that exposure to asbestos can cause pathological and radiographic changes indistinguishable from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis” (CDC, “Asbestos and Interstitial Lung Disease,” 2024). Another analysis published in Frontiers in Medicine (2024) adds that “Most cases of interstitial lung disease result from an etiological factor, such as exposure to asbestos or other harmful substances” (Frontiers in Medicine, 2024). There is therefore no univocal connection, but a biological plausibility: in subjects who have breathed asbestos fibers for years, the lung can develop a chronic inflammatory response which, with age or after viral infections, evolves into interstitial fibrosis.
The expert: “Spirometry should be spread”
“Today we should no longer die of acute pneumonia as happened in the past – explains to FattoQuotidiano.it Professor Giacomo Mangiaracina, medical specialist in Public Health and President of the National Agency for Prevention -. After the age of 65, antipneumococcal vaccination is recommended, especially in fragile subjects, while in interstitial forms, spirometry is recommended as a form of monitoring the evolution. It is obvious that the intervention of other factors, primarily the smoke of tobacco or exposure to dustcan precipitate events. Even more so, spirometry tests are absolutely recommended. In Italy, an infinite number of often useless electrocardiograms and few spirometry tests are prescribed. It is time to reevaluate this exam.”
