Mosquitos are more than a nuisance. Just one mosquito bite may ruin your holiday and some mosquito-borne diseases can have health impacts that last years.
A bite from an infected mosquito can lead to diseases like dengue and malaria, as well as viruses people may find less familiar like Chikungunya, which has been reported in more than 110 countries.
Currently, mosquito-borne diseases infect up to 700 million people each year.4 If current climate change trends persist, projections suggest that as many as 8.4 billion people could be at risk of contracting these diseases by the end of the century5 as climate change boosts mosquito-borne diseases.6
Hosts include domestic or wild animals and people. The virus develops and multiplies inside the mosquito. The infected mosquito then transmits the virus through its saliva when it bites another, uninfected host. By passing on the virus, the mosquito acts as a “vector” of the disease.
Climate change increases the spread of Aedes mosquitoes. Infected Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can transmit various arboviruses. This is why there is an increased incidence of mosquito-borne disease (like Dengue fever, Malaria, Japanese Encephalitis, Yellow fever, Chikungunya fever, Zika). Travelers to endemic areas are therefore exposed to the risk of infection.1
Historically, these mosquitoes predominantly inhabited tropical and subtropical regions like South America and Southeast Asia.2 However, due to rising global temperatures and increased rainfall, these disease-carrying mosquitoes have expanded their reach. In recent years, they’ve infiltrated previously unaffected areas, such as Southern Europe.3