The organization, which had already warned that due to global warming the Aedes Aegypti would spread to latitudes where it did not exist before, now warned that the Old Continent has ideal conditions for the spread of the mosquito vector.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommended that European countries prepare for possible outbreaks of dengue fever once the heat wave episodes that are being experienced in different parts of the continent have passed, since at that time the ideal conditions may arise for the spread of the mosquito vector of this disease.
In general, the jump of dengue to areas where this disease was nonexistent before is related to climate change and both rainy and drought episodes are favorable for its expansion, said yesterday the head of the WHO Tropical Disease Control Program, Raman Velayudhan.
The organization recommended to governments the importance of developing action plans for rapid detection and monitoring of symptoms among the population.
According to Velayudhan, the current risk of Aedes Aegypti mosquito breeding is low in areas where the temperature exceeds 40 degrees Celsius, as it is naturally active and bites during the day, but if it flies at such temperatures it dies.
Both droughts and heavy rains are favorable situations for the mosquito. In the first case, families tend to store water in tanks, jerry cans or other containers to cover their needs, while in the second case, the water becomes stagnant, with stagnant waters being the places where the mosquito breeds.
“Communities can help by exploring their homes and cleaning stagnant water to make sure that mosquitoes are not breeding in and around their homes,” the expert stressed. Velayudhan had already anticipated earlier this year that climate change and rising temperatures in these areas were allowing these insects to breed more easily.
In the same vein, Dr. Diana Rojas, a member of the WHO, had also spoken out about “the expansion of the vector of this disease over increasingly higher latitudes, moving further and further away from the tropics.” “Transmission is seen where it did not exist before in the southern cone of South America, and if we go to the northern hemisphere, the high temperatures recorded in European countries in the spring and summer months are favorable for increasing the number of mosquitoes throughout the continent.”
In a paper issued by the European Climate and Health Observatory, experts stressed that “the estimated global incidence of dengue has grown 30-fold over the past 50 years due to a variety of factors, including globalization, travel, trade, socioeconomic factors, human settlement, viral evolution and possibly climate change.” “Travelers often carry dengue virus (DENV) between countries, and in Europe the majority of cases (>99%) are travel-related,” they said last year. Climatic suitability for dengue transmission within Europe is already increasing, and higher temperatures expected in the future will create even more favorable conditions for mosquito-borne dengue in several parts of central Europe.”
Dengue is a viral infection that is transmitted from mosquitoes to people. Most people who contract dengue have no symptoms. When symptoms do appear, they are usually high fever, headache and pain in other parts of the body, nausea and skin rashes. In most cases, the person is cured in one to two weeks, but sometimes the disease becomes severe and requires hospitalization.
Although in a first infection up to 80% of cases may be asymptomatic, if the same person is bitten a second time by a mosquito transmitting another variant of the virus (there are four), he/she may present severe symptoms and require medical treatment.