A four-year-old girl has died of malaria at Brescia's Ospedali Civili hospital, officials confirmed Tuesday. The girl had previously been in hospital in Portogruaro and then in Trento in relation to diabetes, Trentino Provincial Health Agency (APSS) Director General Paolo Bordon said Tuesday.
When she was in hospital in Trento there were also "two children with malaria who recovered, in another room", Bordon said. The girl, the daughter of an Italian couple resident in Trento, had reportedly never been to a country where malaria is a problem. There is no evidence of malaria-transmitting species of mosquito being present in Italy.
She was hit by the most acute form of the disease and died in the night between Sunday and Monday. The girl may have been infected by a mosquito that was carried to Italy from abroad via baggage. Giampiero Carosi, a University of Brescia infectious diseases expert, said a possible hypothesis was that a mosquito bit someone who was infected, perhaps after a trip, and then transmitted the disease to the girl. Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin has sent a team of experts to Trento's Santa Chiara hospital to investigate and requested a report from the autonomous province of Trento's health department.
The hospital wards affected will undergo disinfestation procedures.
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