Aided by global warming and globalisation, Castiglione di Cervia has the dubious distinction of playing host to the first outbreak in modern Europe of a disease that had previously been seen only in the tropics.

“By the time we got back the name and surname of the virus, our outbreak was over,” said Rafaella Angelini, director of the regional public health department in Ravenna.

The epidemic proved that tropical viruses are now able to spread in new areas, far north of their previous range. The tiger mosquito, which first arrived in Ravenna three years ago, is thriving across southern Europe and even in France and Switzerland.

“This is the first case of an epidemic of a tropical disease in a developed, European country,” said Roberto Bertollini, director of the World Health Organisation’s Health and Environment programme. “Climate change creates conditions that make it easier for this mosquito to survive and it opens the door to diseases that didn’t exist here previously. This is a real issue. Now, today. It is not something a crazy environmentalist is warning about.”

Was he shocked to discover chikungunya in Italy, his native land? “We knew this would happen sooner or later,” he said. “We just didn’t know where or when.”

It certainly caught this town off guard on August 9, when public health officials in Ravenna received an angry call from Stefano Merlo, who owns the gas station.

August is not the season for high fevers, Angelini agreed, and within days of interviewing patients she was intrigued.

... contd.