Global warming and mosquitoes: tropical viruses threaten Europe

As a result of global warming, diseases that were previously confined to tropical regions, such as dengue fever, chikungunya and West Nile virus, are taking hold in Europe.

Rising temperatures and heatwaves are encouraging the proliferation of the tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), the main vector of these viruses, whose range is now moving northwards across the continent.

In 2024, Europe recorded 304 cases of dengue fever, more than in the previous fifteen years, with outbreaks detected in France, Spain, Italy and Croatia. Scientists estimate that these diseases could become endemic within a few decades, with the risk of epidemics increasing fivefold by 2060 if current trends continue.

Climate change is not the only cause: urbanisation, globalisation and the intensification of human travel are speeding up the dispersal of mosquitoes and viruses. Other vectors, such as ticks, are also becoming more active, extending the season for transmitted diseases and increasing the threat of pathologies such as Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis.

Europe needs to step up its epidemiological surveillance and adapt its health infrastructures to cope with this new health reality, while the spread of vector-borne diseases looks unlikely to be reversed in the short term.

"More than half of all infectious diseases facing humanity (...) have at some point been aggravated or even reinforced by climate risks," explains Dr Aleksandra Kazmierczak, an expert in the relationship between climate change and human health at the European Environment Agency (EEA).

(MH with LM - Source : France 24 - Picture : Jane Stroebel via Unsplash )