[leish-l] Fwd: European Governmental Control Measures - ITALY

[jeffreyj at usp.br]

From: Luigi Gradoni <gradoni at iss.it>
Reply-To: Luigi Gradoni <gradoni at iss.it>
 Subject: European Governmental Control Measures - ITALY
      To: jeffreyj at usp.br

Dear Jeffrey,
there is no national programme for leishmaniasis control in Italy. However,
in regions that are more affected by VL (e.g. some southern regions such as
Campania, Sicily, etc) there are protocols/plans approved by the local
health authorities (I have been appointed as consultant for some of them).
Note that the 20 "regions" of Italy are administrative entities that have
large autonomy in terms of public health government. These protocols are in
form of "general recommendations" rather than actions imposed by law.  To
understand their background, one should keep in mind that dogs, especially
stray ones, cannot be killed even if found infected by Leishmania. Stray
dogs "must" be hosted in kennels life long. In general, recommendations
include:

- serological testing of dogs twice a year. There are public reference
institutes for this and the tests are free of charge;
- treatment of positive dogs with a 60-day course of meglumine antimoniate
100 mg/kg/day plus allopurinol 15 mg/kg/day. Treatments should start at the
beginning of the sandfly season (May). Note that antimony is not longer
used in the therapy of human VL, for which lipid-associated amphotericin B
is employed.
- for owned positive dogs, owners are suggested to keep their dogs indoor
during night time in summer; they are also recommended to apply
deltamethrin-impregnated collars (e.g. Scalibor);  
- for stray dogs housed in kennels, deltamethrin is applied to nets
surrounding the kennels; collars are also recommended.

I can't tell you if these measures are having an impact on human disease
reduction. However dog's owners and animal lovers feel themselves more happy!

Best wishes,

Luigi          


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