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. 2022 May 3;19(9):5541.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19095541.

Assessment of the Costs Related to West Nile Virus Monitoring in Lombardy Region (Italy) between 2014 and 2018

Francesco Defilippo  1 , Michele Dottori  1 , Davide Lelli  1 , Mario Chiari  2 , Danilo Cereda  2 , Marco Farioli  2 , Rosa Chianese  3   4 , Monica Pierangela Cerioli  1 , Francesca Faccin  1 , Sabrina Canziani  1 , Tiziana Trogu  1 , Enrica Sozzi  1 , Ana Moreno  1 , Antonio Lavazza  1 , Umberto Restelli  5   6
Affiliations

Assessment of the Costs Related to West Nile Virus Monitoring in Lombardy Region (Italy) between 2014 and 2018

Francesco Defilippo et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

In Italy, the West Nile Virus surveillance plan considers a multidisciplinary approach to identify the presence of the virus in the environment (entomological, ornithological, and equine surveillance) and to determine the risk of infections through potentially infected donors (blood and organ donors). The costs associated with the surveillance program for the Lombardy Region between 2014 and 2018 were estimated. The costs of the program were compared with a scenario in which the program was not implemented, requiring individual blood donation nucleic acid amplification tests (NAT) to detect the presence of WNV in human samples throughout the seasonal period of vector presence. Considering the five-year period, the application of the environmental/veterinary surveillance program allowed a reduction in costs incurred in the Lombardy Region of 7.7 million EUR. An integrated surveillance system, including birds, mosquito vectors, and dead-end hosts such as horses and humans, can prevent viral transmission to the human population, as well as anticipate the detection of WNV using NAT in blood and organ donors. The surveillance program within a One Health context has given the possibility to both document the expansion of the endemic area of WNV in northern Italy and avoid most of the NAT-related costs.

Keywords: NAT; blood donors; horses; human; mosquitoes; surveillance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Annual costs per environmental/veterinary surveillance. (a) Entomological, (b) ornithological, and (c) equine surveillance.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Annual costs per environmental/veterinary surveillance. (a) Entomological, (b) ornithological, and (c) equine surveillance.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Annual costs per type of human surveillance (hospitalization (a) and NAT test (b)).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Annual costs per type of human surveillance (hospitalization (a) and NAT test (b)).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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