Dengue Fever Becoming a Major Threat in Southern Europe, Southern United States, and Africa: WHO Scientist Warns

Publication date: 06.10.2023 09:40

The Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which spreads the dengue fever virus. Photo: Profimedia Images

Dengue fever will become a major threat in southern Europe, the southern United States and parts of Africa this decade, the World Health Organization’s top researcher said, according to Reuters. The threat of this tropical disease becomes more pronounced as warmer temperatures create conditions for mosquitoes that carry the virus to spread.

This infectious disease has long been a major problem in Asia and South America, where it causes around 20,000 deaths a year.

The number of infections globally has already increased eightfold since 2000, mostly due to climate change, but also due to the increasing flow of global travel and urbanization.

Many of the cases, however, remain unregistered. However, in 2022, 4.2 million cases have been reported worldwide, and public health officials have warned that they expect record levels of the disease’s spread.

Bangladesh, for example, is going through the worst epidemic, registering more than 1,000 deaths.

“We need to be much more proactive about dengue fever,” said Jeremy Farrar, an infectious disease specialist who joined the WHO in May this year.

“We have to prepare countries to face this new pressure that will come in the future in many big cities,” he added.

Farrar previously worked for 18 years in Vietnam in the field of tropical diseases, including dengue. He said this infectious disease has a high chance of becoming endemic in parts of the United States, Europe and Africa – all areas where some form of local transmission already exists.

It all comes under the conditions that global warming has made it so that the disease can be transmitted more easily in the respective regions. That will put a huge strain on health systems in many countries, Farrar warned.

“Clinical care for this disease is very intensive, a large number of nurses are needed for each patient. I am very concerned about when this disease will become a big problem in sub-Saharan Africa,” he added.

Symptoms and transmission

So far, no specific treatment has been discovered for dengue fever, although there is a vaccine against it.

Many of those infected have no symptoms, which means that the number of cases is actually much higher than reported. Those who develop symptoms, however, develop high fevers, muscle spasms and severe joint pain. The pains are so severe that the disease has also been called “broken bone fever”.

In very severe cases, less than 1%, it can be fatal.

Preparing the regions of the world that will face dengue fever means securing funds for health systems and using them proactively, including for the control of vector mosquitoes.

Dengue fever is spread through contact with Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes – they usually bite people indoors and feed throughout the day, unlike regular mosquitoes which are more active at night. These mosquitoes also spread further in shallow water.

Editor: Adrian Dumitru

2023-10-06 06:40:05
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