Blood samples collected from a
55-year-old man who died shortly after returning from a trip to
the Democratic Republic of Congo have shown the presence of
plasmodium falciparum, the agent causing malaria, the
Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases said in a
note sent to ANSA on Wednesday.
The institute said it analysed blood samples "to search for
different pathogen agents at the laboratory of Virology and the
laboratories of Biosecurity".
The same tests ruled out the presence of other viral-bacterial
co infections, it said.
The man from the Veneto town of Trevignano near Treviso died
with fever and hemorrhaging after recently returning from a trip
to the DRC.
Congo's Ministry of Health has said the mystery disease is a
severe form of malaria, but the World Health Organization has
said the cause has not yet been established and laboratory tests
are ongoing.
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