New Delhi: The health officials stated that an unnamed chikungunya-infected tourist, visiting relatives in Castiglione town of Italy’s Ravenna region, from south India has been found responsible for the spread of the tropical disease in the region.

Experts from the European Centre for Disease Control told, “Just before visiting Italy, the Indian tourist travelled across Kerala, one of the worst affected states with chikungunya, where he was bitten and infected by the local Aedes Albopictus mosquitoes.”

The epidemic has brought up grave concerns that the disease might soon take the form of an outbreak across European countries. Functionaries fear that the tiger mosquitoes, which transmit the chikungunya virus, will shortly transmit a disease to people in France, Spain, Croatia, Britain and Switzerland.

What’s worrying researchers the majority is that the recent outbreak in Italy, which has till now infected 78 people, is being caused by local mosquito bites, who have got infected. This is the first time in history that local transmission of chikungunya disease, not just importation, has taken place anywhere in Europe.

Functionaries think that this is the first case that an epidemic of the disease was confirmed outside the tropical zone.

Ben Duncan from ECDC stated, “In the next few weeks, winter will set in several parts of Europe and mosquitoes will get less active. We, however, fear outbreaks in several parts of Europe next year.”

“By looking at the recent outbreaks in Asia and Africa, we know that it's a matter of time before mosquitoes all across Europe get infected by the virus and pass it on to humans. We have therefore started to make doctors all over Europe aware about chikungunya and keep it in mind as a possible diagnosis for patients showing classical symptoms like high fever, severe joint pains, red eyes and itchy skin lesions,” Mr. Duncan added.

According to Italian experts, chikungunya virus has been isolated from local tiger mosquitoes affirming that local spread has passed off.