Dengue, the bone-breaking fever in Rome: Franca’s story

2024-03-15 17:44:00

“The bite of a mosquito, in Rome in my city, perhaps at home. An unpleasant encounter that made me understand what ‘bone-breaking fever’ as Dengue is called means.” Franca Pandolfi, 80 years old, tells Adnkronos Salute this way about her experience, last October, with an exotic disease, Dengue, endemic in many tropical areas and which we are also starting to know in Italy. “I experienced the discomfort of a tropical disease without leaving my living room, without even the pleasure of an exotic trip – jokes Mrs. Franca – even though in my neighborhood I became famous, together with my niece, after hospitalization linked to the infection “.

Franca Pandolfi’s story begins at the end of summer, when her sixteen-year-old niece falls ill. A sort of flu, but her high fever doesn’t drop. A family friend, a doctor at the Spallanzani Institute, recommends the test, considering the presence of some cases in the area. “I had heard about this disease – continues Mrs. Franca – but it seemed remote to me.” And the following month, when “I started having symptoms that seemed to me like a normal flu, I didn’t think about it right away. After the first few days, however, I started having very strong pain in my bones. At this point my family doctor who recommended the test to me.”

Following Franca is Dr. Mario Brozzi, who together with his daughter Valeria, a doctor in general medicine in training, has made the greatest number of reports to the Local Health Authority for Dengue and has started a collaboration project with the Spallanzani Institute to send the cases suspicions to confirm the diagnosis. Therefore, after the test at Spalanzani, Mrs. Franca was admitted to the same institute for checks, which were also necessary to avoid any complications. “As had already happened to my niece – she explains – I was in hospital for a week. I complained of very strong bone pain that didn’t even let me sleep. And the doctors then explained to me that the disease is also called ‘bone-breaking’. And I can ensure that this is indeed the case.”