Mosquito-borne diseases are spreading in Europe due to the climate crisis

Insects spread diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, the prevalence of which has increased greatly over the past 80 years because global warming has provided them with warmer and wetter conditions.

Prof Rachel Lowe, who heads a global health resilience group in Barcelona, ​​Spain, warned that in the coming decades, epidemics of mosquito-borne diseases will spread to areas of northern Europe, Asia, North America and Australia which are not currently affected.

“The stark reality is that longer warm seasons will widen the seasonal window for the spread of mosquito-borne diseases and favor increasingly frequent and difficult-to-manage outbreaks,” Lowe said.

She added that if the current trajectory of high carbon emissions and population growth continues, the number of people living in areas with mosquito-borne diseases will double to 4.7 billion by the end of the century.

“Given that climate change seems so difficult to tackle, we can expect to see more cases and possibly deaths from diseases such as dengue and malaria in continental Europe. We must anticipate the outbreaks and intervene in time to prevent the occurrence of diseases”, the expert said.

Prof. Sabiha Essack from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa said climate deterioration is a “threat multiplier” for antimicrobial resistance: “Climate change compromises the ecological and environmental integrity of living systems and allows pathogens to cause more many diseases. The impact on water systems, food-producing animals and crops threatens the global food supply”.