2024-06-12 08:15:32
Mosquitoes like heat and humid climates. The delicate winters and heat summers due to this fact encourage their unfold – and local weather change is guilty.
Mosquito-borne illnesses resembling dengue fever are growing considerably in Europe on account of local weather change. A complete of 130 domestically acquired dengue instances had been registered within the EU, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland in 2023, the European Centre for Illness Prevention and Management (ECDC) in Solna, Sweden, introduced on Tuesday. In 2022, there have been solely 71 instances.
“Europe is already experiencing how local weather change is creating extra beneficial circumstances for invasive mosquitoes to unfold into beforehand unaffected areas and infect extra folks with illnesses resembling dengue,” ECDC Director Andrea Ammon mentioned at a press convention.
There’s a “hyperlink between larger temperatures in summer time, a milder winter and the unfold of mosquitoes additional into areas the place they aren’t but current,” defined Ammon. Based on her company, the mosquito species Aedes albopictus, which transmits not solely the fever illness dengue but additionally the chikungunya and Zika viruses, is spreading additional within the north, east and west of Europe. There are actually “self-sustaining populations” of this species in 13 international locations within the area beneath examine.
The ECDC additionally registered 713 domestically acquired instances of West Nile virus final 12 months, 67 of which had been deadly. The infections occurred in 9 EU international locations.
Though there have been extra West Nile virus infections in 2022, with 1,133 instances, extra European areas had been affected in 2023, with 123 areas, than at any time since 2018, the EU authority defined. The viral illness is transmitted by the mosquito species Culex pipiens, which originates from Europe and, in keeping with the ECDC, is present in all international locations studied.
There’s additionally the mosquito species Aedes aegypti, which transmits yellow fever along with dengue, chikungunya and Zika. Based on the ECDC, it has just lately settled in Cyprus and different areas on the outer edges of the EU, such because the Portuguese island of Madeira.
The ECDC known as for coordinated measures because of the rising menace of mosquito-borne illnesses. This consists of the distribution of insect nets and anti-mosquito spray. Easy measures resembling eradicating puddles and standing water from balconies and gardens that mosquitoes use to put their eggs may additionally scale back the chance.