According To A WHO Scientist, Dengue Will “Take Off” In Southern Europe, The US, And Africa This Decade.
The head scientist for the WHO predicted that dengue fever will pose a serious concern in the southern United States, southern Europe, and new regions of Africa this decade as higher temperatures encourage the spread of the mosquitoes that transmit the disease. The disease has long been a scourge, killing an estimated 20,000 people annually in parts of Asia and Latin America. Since 2000, the disease has already increased eight-fold in prevalence worldwide, mostly due to urbanisation, increased human migration, and climate change . Public health officials have warned that this year is likely to see near-record levels of transmission despite the fact that many cases go unreported. In 2022, 4.2 million cases were registered globally. More than 1,000 people have died in Bangladesh’s biggest epidemic ever as of late. Jeremy Farrar, an infectious diseases expert who joined the World Health Organisation in May of this year, told Reuters that “we need to talk about dengue much more activ...