Tropical bugs head to Europe

[hilly]

From today's Daily Telegraph.


"Climate change could fuel invasions of tropical mosquito and tick-borne viruses across Europe's borders, experts say.

Diseases such as West Nile fever, yellow fever, dengue fever and Japanese encephalitis mostly occur in the tropics and other warm regions of the world. But they are becoming increasingly widespread due to the greater movement of people, goods, and animals.

Writing in The Lancet medical journal, published today, experts say it is likely that global warming will accelarate the spread of these viruses into southern and even northern Europe. The invaders belong to a family of 'flaviviruses' that are transmitted by blood-sucking insects. One of them, the yellow fever virus, causes up to 30,000 deaths in sub-Saharan Africa each year.

There is no vaccine against dengue virus, which can produce dangerous fevers and send the body into shock. Both theses viruses are carried by the mosquito Aedes aegypti.

Authors Dr Ernest Gould, from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxford, and Professor Tom Solomon, from the University of Liverpool, wrote 'As Aedes aegypti disperses more widely we might ...witness dengue virus emerging in warmer regions of Europe and North America'

They added that there is evidence that east Asian strains of encephalitis were already circulating in central Europe. "


Just another thing for us all to worry about.... Milly x

[Jason]

I have no doubts some of these diseases aren't already creeping across definitely places like Greece and southern Italy have mosquitoes carrying some weird pathogens because both my girlfriend and i were quite sick for a while in Greece after being bitten alive by mosquitoes.

And that was before i got very ill - maybe it was related.

Imagine the NHS in the UK and our mate Dr Susan O'Connell (sp?) down in Southhampton telling people who have caught this African mosquito borne diseases, "oh its all in your head" and then they die. Unfortunately it may just happen.