An invasion of tropical diseases could be on the cards for North America and much of Europe as disease-carrying mosquitoes expand their range towards the poles.
Other mosquito-borne diseases include dengue, yellow fever, and zika.
“The stark reality is that longer hot seasons will enlarge the seasonal window for the spread of mosquito-borne diseases and favor increasingly frequent outbreaks that are increasingly complex to deal with.”
Rising temperatures are not the only cause for concern: new research from Lowe’s lab has shown that drought conditions followed by warmer weather and excessive rainfall increases the risk of dengue outbreaks.
“Droughts and floods linked to climate change can lead to greater transmission of the virus, with stored water providing additional mosquito breeding sites,” Lowe said.
Even if global climate change goals are met, it is vital that we prepare for the potential expansion of these diseases.
“We must anticipate outbreaks and move to intervene early to prevent diseases from happening in the first place,” Lowe said.
“But ultimately, the most effective way to reduce the risk of these diseases spreading to new areas will be to dramatically curb emissions.”
Disease-carrying mosquitoes are expanding their range towards the poles, which could mean an invasion of tropical diseases for much of Europe and North America.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, mosquitoes are the deadliest animals on the planet, causing almost one million deaths annually. s. the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control. Malaria is mostly to blame for these deaths, and female Anopheles mosquitoes carry the disease. Other illnesses spread by mosquitoes include zika, dengue, and yellow fever.
These illnesses are primarily limited to tropical areas these days. But experts have cautioned that these mosquitoes will probably spread into colder northern latitudes as long as global temperatures rise.
Professor Rachel Lowe, who leads the Barcelona Supercomputing Center’s Global Health Resilience group and teaches at the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, said in a statement that “global warming due to climate change means that the disease vectors that carry and spread malaria and dengue can find a home in more regions, with outbreaks occurring in areas where people are likely to be immunologically naive and public health systems unprepared.”.
“The hard truth is that longer hot seasons will encourage more frequent and more difficult-to-control outbreaks by expanding the seasonal window for the spread of diseases carried by mosquitoes. ****.
Not all concerns stem from rising temperatures, however. Recent studies conducted in Lowe’s laboratory have demonstrated that the likelihood of dengue outbreaks is heightened by drought conditions followed by warm weather and heavy precipitation.
According to Lowe, “droughts and floods associated with climate change may result in increased virus transmission, as stored water creates more mosquito breeding grounds.”.
If we continue on current climate change trajectories, compared to 1970 to 1999, as many as 4 point 7 billion more people could be at risk of malaria and dengue by 2070, according to a study by Lowe and colleagues published in 2021.
It is critical that we get ready for the possible spread of these diseases, even in the unlikely event that global climate change goals are achieved. “To prevent diseases from occurring in the first place, we must prepare for outbreaks and act quickly to intervene,” stated Lowe.
“To more effectively allocate limited resources to the most at-risk areas in order to control and prevent disease outbreaks and save lives, efforts must be directed toward improving surveillance with early warning and response systems akin to those observed in other parts of the world.”. ****.
We can anticipate these outbreaks more precisely and allocate resources to the most vulnerable areas by fusing insect surveillance with climate projections. “We hope to give communities time to prepare and protect themselves by using drones to find mosquito breeding sites, analyzing weather patterns, and gathering information from local communities and health officials,” Lowe said.
But in the end, sharply reducing emissions will be the most efficient strategy to lessen the likelihood that these illnesses will spread to new regions. “.”.
