Western media: Climate change may lead to the outbreak of tropical diseases such as dengue fever in Europe and the United States

According to experts, some tropical diseases such as dengue fever may erupt in temperate regions such as Europe and North America due to climate change.

According to the website of the Spanish newspaper Izvestia on December 2, the increase in temperature, rainfall and humidity is conducive to the reproduction and expansion of mosquitoes carrying viruses or parasites, which are the source of dengue fever or malaria.

The health impacts of climate change will be one of the main topics of discussion at the Un Climate Change Conference in Madrid from 2 to 13 December.

Jorge Cano, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "If nothing is taken, climate change will exacerbate the spread of these diseases in the areas of origin, and for dengue we must also consider the outbreaks it causes in Europe and the United States. ”

Published in November in The Lancet magazine titled "The Lancet 2030 Countdown: Climate Change and Population Health Report," it notes that about half of the world's population is currently at risk for dengue, and that this mosquito-borne viral infectious disease is spreading faster due to climate change.

Agustin Benito, director of the National Center for Tropical Medicine at the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid, said that on the one hand, unfavorable weather phenomena are changing the distribution of disease vectors, especially mosquitoes.

Pathogens (viruses or parasites), on the other hand, are imported by people from the tropics of Africa, Latin America or Southeast Asia. If tropical mosquitoes have adapted to new life in temperate regions, they will bite people who carry pathogens. In Europe, there have been isolated cases of dengue fever, particularly in the Spanish city of Levante, where mosquitoes are already stationed.

The report notes that the situation of malaria is different. Although it is also transmitted by mosquitoes, the infection is caused by parasites whose main radius of activity is concentrated in tropical Africa. "Climate change will exacerbate the spread of malaria in its endemic areas and expose the most vulnerable populations to disease." Kano said.

Benito noted that rising temperatures have led to a massive expansion of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes and have inhabited the mountains of the tropics that have never been reached before.

In addition, in the tropics, rising water temperatures or torrential rains provide an ideal breeding ground for the reproduction of Vibrio, which cause gastroenteritis and other Vibrio bacteria that particularly affect children, and the infectious disease caused by it is cholera. (Compilation/Han Chao)