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He says: “The number of mosquitoes is increasing, their area of activity is increasing and contact with populations who have never before had contact with dengue is increasing. Global warming is probably collaborating with its spread to previously free areas.”
The effects of climate change are here as tropical Zika virus reaches FL. The Governor denies climate change but declares state of emergency
— Barbra Streisand (@BarbraStreisand) February 4, 2016
Other scientists agree. Christovam Barcellos, a geographer at the Fiocruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro, says: “We have noticed that dengue has spread to areas that were previously too cold for it, like the south of the country.”
In colder regions the mosquito has a shorter life, but it can still spread dengue and Zika.
However, Oliver Brady, an Oxford University epidemiologist and co-author of a research paper recently published by The Lancet on the potential export of dengue from Brazil by travelers, is more cautious, warning that the connection between global warming and the spread of Zika is still speculative.
“What is clear is that 2015 and 2016 present an increased risk, because of the high temperatures and rainfall that have been observed, but we don’t know yet if this will be confirmed as a long-term tendency,” he told the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo.
Brazilian specialists believe that the spread of dengue and Zika has also been facilitated by successive governments’ failure to provide basic sanitation and clean water to the poorer part of the population. Only 58 percent are connected to the sewage system and 15 percent lack running water.
Breeding Places
Added to these factors, the drought of 2015, which affected both the semi-arid zone of the Northeast and the urban conglomerations of the Southeast, caused severe water shortages and led to a big increase in the informal storage of water.
This provided many more potential breeding places for the mosquito and dengue fever cases reached 1.5 million, with 863 deaths.
The government has declared war on the insect, drafting in 220,000 soldiers to reinforce health agents in a campaign to visit every residence in Brazil and clear away anything where mosquito larvae breed—including old tyres, empty bottles, badly-closed water tanks, plant containers and even the leaves of Bromeliad plants.
Free mosquito repellent is being distributed to women on welfare programs. The WHO decision to declare a public health emergency will make it easier to get funding for the urgent work of developing a vaccine.
Another possible solution is the “good mosquito,” a transgenic mosquito developed by the UK firm Oxitec. When it breeds with normal mosquitoes, it leaves them sterile.
It is now being trialled in Brazil, Panama and the Cayman Islands. In the town of Piracicaba, São Paulo state, it was reported that the release of thousands of “good mosquitoes” led to the death of 82 percent of the Aedes population.
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