WHO warns of increase in mosquitoes causing dengue and Zika due to climate change

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is preparing for an increase in the spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, Zika and chikungunya due to climate change.

The "high probability" of the meteorological phenomenon, known as El Niño, occurring between 2023 and 2024, will cause more of the insects to breed and will extend their lifecycles, the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Wednesday 23 June.

Mosquitoes were seen out in Spain as early as January this year. Volunteers for Mosquito Alert reported sightings in Barcelona on just the first day of the year as the country experienced a winter that was much warmer than usual.

The WHO announced that it will train 6,000 health professionals to assist Peru, which is in the midst of a dengue epidemic. The disease has already affected more than 150,000 people in the South American country this year, a figure double that of the same period last year.

Ghebreyesus said that less than 1% of these cases could be fatal, but warned of the heavy impact the cases are having on the Peruvian health system.

He warned that cases of dengue and other diseases are on the increase worldwide, notably in the Americas, where 2.8 million cases and 1,280 deaths were reported last year. He said that many of the strategies used to combat Covid-19 can now be reused in the fight against dengue and similar diseases.

The most common symptoms of dengue are fever, nausea, vomiting, rash and aches or pains.