The World Health Organization has published (March 5) an international alert after having received communications in February from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, through the European Union's Early Warning and Response System (EWS). , of an increase in psittacosis cases observed in 2023 and early 2024, particularly marked from November and December 2023.
The WHO details that the information shared by the European Union includes five people dead from this disease popularly known as parrot fever, a respiratory infection caused by Chlamydophila psittaci, a bacteria that mainly affects birds.
In most cases, exposure to wild and/or domestic birds was reported. Psittacosis is a respiratory infection caused by Chlamydophila psittaci (C. psittaci), a bacteria that often infects birds.
Human infections occur primarily through contact with secretions from infected birds and are primarily associated with those who work with domestic birds, poultry production workers, veterinarians, pet bird owners, and gardeners in areas where psittacosis is epizootic in the bird population. wild.
Affected countries have implemented epidemiological investigations to identify possible exposures and clusters of cases. Additionally, measures implemented include the analysis of samples from wild birds submitted for avian influenza testing to verify the prevalence of C. psittaci among wild birds. "The World Health Organization continues to monitor the situation and, based on the information available, evaluates the risk posed by this event as low," the WHO itself details in an information note. In Spain, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food maintains a specific psittacosis surveillance and control program, with no significant increase in cases reported in recent months.
Denmark has recorded a notable increase in psittacosis cases from late 2023 to mid-January 2024. As of February 27, 2024, 23 people tested positive for C. psittaci using RT-PCR. Most cases were reported in the Northern Denmark region, the Zeeland region and the capital region. Seventeen cases, 74%) were hospitalized, of which 15 presented pneumonia and four died, the WHO details on its website.
An increase in confirmed cases of psittacosis has been observed in the Netherlands since the end of December 2023, with 21 people reported positive for C. psittaci as of February 29, 2024, which is twice as many cases as in the Netherlands. period of previous years.
The recent cases have been geographically distributed across the country with no common source of infection identified. The cases had an average age of 67 years, of which 16 were men (76%). All of the recent cases were hospitalized and one patient died.
In 2024, four cases of psittacosis have been reported in Austria as of March 4 of this year: none of the patients reported in 2023 or 2024 have reported travel abroad and wild birds are not considered as a source of infection.
Germany reported an increase in people testing positive for C. psittaci in December 2023, with five confirmed cases, making a total of 14 cases in 2023. As of February 20 of this year, They reported five more confirmed cases of psittacosis.
For its part, in Sweden ten cases have been reported in January and three in February of this year, which is lower than the average number of cases reported in the same period of the previous five years.
