[Lessons from the Greek dengue epidemic of 1927-1928]

Epidemics of dengue have occurred in Greece in 1881, 1889, 1895-1897 and 1910, but the outbreak which has affected this country in 1927-1928 has been of a peculiar severity and geographic extension. More than one million inhabitants were sick and about 1500 died. The outbreak extended to the whole Greek territory and evolved in two epidemics waves. The first one occurred during the second half of 1927, was not very extensive and relatively benign. The second wave, explosive, started on July 1928, reached its summit in August and then declined until November. During this second part of the outbreak severe clinical events were identified, such as hemorrhagic, neurological or renal disorders, along with infections during pregnancy. The mosquito Aedes aegypti was the alone vector of the disease and dengue type 1 virus was the main etiological agent both in 1927 and 1928. The eventual activity of the dengue type 2 virus and its possible role in the pathogenesis of severe clinical forms of dengue, during 1928, remains unclear. Relatively speaking, it is possible to parallel this "historical" outbreak with the recent epidemic episode which appeared in 2007 in the Ravenne's area in northern Italy. This outbreak was caused by the Chikungunya virus after its importation from southern India by an infected traveller. There were 249 autochthonous registered cases but no severity nor death was observed. The local vector was Aedes albopictus, an invasive mosquito of Asian origin which has progressively invaded a number of European countries including France. Thus, Europe is now at risk to the emergence of outbreaks caused by "exotic" viruses imported by travellers returning from other parts of the world.