Global heating driving spread of mosquito-borne dengue fever

[Judi Lynn]

Record numbers across Asia and Americas infected as rising temperatures extend disease to places once seen as safe

• ‘Mystery illness’ comes to the hill villages of Nepal

Harriet Grant
Sun 1 Dec 2019 04.44 EST Last modified on Tue 3 Dec 2019 05.49 EST

Rising temperatures across Asia and the Americas have contributed to multiple severe outbreaks of dengue fever globally over the past six months, making 2019 the worst year on record for the disease.

In 1970 only nine countries faced severe dengue outbreaks. But the disease, which is spread by mosquitoes that can only survive in warm temperatures, is now seen in more than 100 countries. There are thought to be 390 million infections each year.

Thais Dos Santos, an expert adviser on the surveillance and control of arboviral diseases for the Pan American Health Organization, said dengue was reaching new areas as temperatures rise.

“The hotter the climate, the better the mosquito is at breeding, but it is now coming up higher and higher to cities like Bogotá and Mexico City that are well above sea level, cities traditionally believed to be safe from the Aedes mosquito.”

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/humanity-united-partner-zone/2019/dec/01/global-heating-driving-spread-dengue-fever-asia-americas