Tropical diseases beyond the Tropics
Climate change is changing habitats and bringing new threats.
Summary: Native cases of dengue have been found in several French regions including Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur and Occitanie. There have been over 570 cases of West Nile Virus in Europe this year. It is believed that climate change is creating new habitats for mosquitoes
Why this is important: Increased incidents of disease, in humans, animals and plants, are not going to just take place in economies around the equator. Previously “hot climate” diseases will now needed to be factored into risk assessments for projects and investments in previously “cooler climate” regions.
The big theme: Climate change is a macro risk that has longer-term impacts on investments. Geographically specific risks will move from the periphery to the core impacting markets, resource usage and well-being in regions where those risks would have been historically negligible. Lessons learned from the recent COVID-19 pandemic could be leveraged to reduce those risks.
The details
Native cases of dengue have been found in several French regions including Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur and Occitanie. Whilst there are a number of imported cases every year (brought back by people who have travelled to at-risk countries), local dengue transmission (where someone is bitten by a mosquito having not travelled to an at-risk country) has risen markedly. Since 2010 annual cases of local dengue transmission have averaged 12 per year, but there have been nearly 40 since July 2022.
It is believed that climate change is creating new habitats for mosquitoes such as Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti which are a vector for flaviviruses such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika.
There have been over 570 cases of West Nile Virus in Europe this year, most of which have been in Veneto whose lowlands are proving to be an ideal habitat for the Culex mosquito, which carries the West Nile Virus.
