Tropical disease-carrying mosquitoes could be taking up residence in the UK due to the country’s warming climate, the UKHSA has warned.
Longer and hotter summers could make the country a suitable breeding ground for the so-called “tiger mosquitoes” (Aedes albopictus), which prefer to settle in cities and can carry many dangerous viruses, including those that cause dengue and West Nile fever.
The latter species has already settled in southern Europe – in France alone, in the last 2 years, 50 cases of dengue infection have been recorded among people who have not traveled outside the country. On September 1, a large-scale anti-mosquito operation was carried out in Paris for the first time to eliminate the possibility of the disease spreading in the capital.
The UKHSA notes that in the UK, tiger mosquitoes are already being caught in special traps, which the agency uses to monitor the situation. A predictive model created by experts at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine shows that within 50 years, tiger mosquitoes will have established themselves in Wales and much of England, joining the 36 species of their cousins that already inhabit the kingdom.
“With climate change, summers are getting warmer, seasons are getting longer and every time mosquitoes arrive in the country, they are more likely to decide to settle here,” Jolyon Medlock, UKHSA’s head of medical entomology, was quoted as saying from Sky News.
The summer of 2018 was the UK’s hottest on record since 1884, and the summer of 2022 will see the country record its first temperature above 40 degrees. This week in the south of England the air will warm up to 32 degrees.
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2023-09-05 05:07:37
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