The CDC has issued a health alert in the US after an incident wherein malaria was locally acquired in Texas and Florida. However, experts say this isn't the only thing people should be worried about.
Malaria in the US
According to News Week, the warning by the CDC regarding how locally acquired malaria was spotted in the US isn't the only form of mosquito-borne disease that the public should worry about. Experts are also trying to direct the public's attention toward climate change.
This comes as five locally acquired malaria cases happened in Texas and Florida, with many people linking this occurrence to climate change. The speculation is that due to warming temperatures, malarial mosquitos were able to travel across the US.
However, News Week reports that this isn't a new phenomenon since malaria in the US was present during the 19th century. The National Institute of Health reports data from the US Census Bureau, reporting that 45.7 of 1,000 deaths came from malaria in the 1850s.
Sadie Ryan, the University of Flordia's associate professor of medical geography, said that the US always had suitable conditions but was previously able to handle them because of elimination and control. So far, the US had 2,000 annual malaria cases on average over the past ten years.
Ryan reported that even more currently, the local mosquitos could pick up malaria and transmit the disease to another person. He noted that local transmission would result from this phenomenon.
Climate Change and Malaria
Rajiv Chowdhury, a Florida International University chair and professor of global health, described the effects of global climate change to News Week. The professor noted that it resulted in weather patterns gradually shifting, which could've provided malaria's vectors and parasites with more suitable conditions.
Chowdhury gave an example, describing how higher average surface temperature could result in more mosquitos migrating and starting to live in places that were previously not habitable to Anopheles mosquitoes.
The professor also described how the temperatures could've had an effect on the growth rate increase and transmissibility of malaria-bearing parasite variants. The PLOS Biology reported optimal transmission for most malaria-bearing mosquitoes was at 26 °C with a range of 17 °C and 35 °C.
Dangers of Climate Change
News Week reports that Chowdhury described other effects of climate change, like leading to higher sea levels or rainfall in certain places. These conditions could result in more areas sitting with open spaces and stagnant water, which often translates to favorable environments for mosquitoes to breed.
Erin Mordecai, Stanford associate professor of biology studying infectious diseases ecology, said that new mosquitoes are starting to spread in the US, which could potentially transmit other diseases like dengue, Zika, and chikungunya.
Mordecai mentioned that this occurrence was already happening in Peru due to climate change and El Niño, resulting in the country experiencing its largest dengue outbreak.
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