Girone ill with dengue in India

(ANSA) - Bari, August 20 - The father of one of two Italian marines facing possible murder charges in India told ANSA Friday his son is ill with dengue, a mosquito-borne tropical viral disease that causes sudden fevers, muscle and joint pain, and rashes. "Yes, Salvatore caught that infection," Michele Girone confirmed. "He's a bit better now...we don't know how this thing will evolve".
    Italy's ministry of defence said Girone's condition "is not particularly worrisome". "The illness is following its normal course," the ministry said in a statement, adding that two military doctors have been dispatched to India where he is being held. Wife Vania Ardito and their children Michele and Marina joined him in the Indian capital two days ago.
    Girone is being held in India, where along with fellow marine Massimilano Latorre he faces possible trial on charges of shooting to death two unarmed Indian fishermen during an anti-piracy mission in 2012. Latorre has been in Italy on an India-granted medical leave since last summer.
    The International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on August 24 ruled that both countries must suspend any judicial proceedings against the pair pending an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on the case, which has caused diplomatic tension between Italy and India. Accordingly on Friday, India suspended four judicial proceedings against the marines as per the Hamburg ruling and a subsequent ruling by the Supreme Court in New Delhi.
    Dengue fever can be caused by four different viruses, all of them transmitted by mosquitoes, and infects 50 million people every year.
    Currently affects people in a total of 100 countries in Central and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Indochina and Southeast Asia, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
    The illness kills anywhere between 2.5 and 5% of infected patients, reaching 20% mortality in people with hemorrhagic dengue.
    Avoiding mosquito bites in high-risk countries is of the essence, because no vaccine has yet been discovered.