Nearly four billion people worldwide are at risk of being infected by the two species of Aedes mosquito – Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus (tiger) – which together cause diseases such as dengue, Zika, chikungunya and fever. yellow (remember that the current world population is eight billion inhabitants, so this is one in two individuals).
This warning comes from the head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) arbovirus team, Diana Rojas Alvarez. The epidemiologist pointed out that this number – four billion – will increase by another billion in the coming decades, mainly due to factors such as global warming and the adaptation of the Aedes mosquito to high altitudes. Remember that the insect is already present in the mountains of Nepal and Colombia as well as in the countries of the Andes region.
The proliferation of cases is due to environmental factors such as increased precipitation and therefore humidity, which favors mosquito breeding, as well as increased global temperatures, both phenomena caused by climate change.
According to the expert, cases of infection have increased steadily over the past four decades. However, in 2023 there was what she called a very significant increase in cases and deaths from the disease. “A new record,” she said, highlighting more than six million reported cases and more than seven thousand deaths from dengue in 80 countries.
Currently, WHO is actively monitoring dengue outbreaks and epidemics in at least 23 countries, including 17 in North and South America, and in Asia, such as Sri Lanka.
https://www.who.int/fr/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dengue-and-severe-dengue#:~:text=La%20dengue%20is%20an%20infection,of infections%20occurring %20each%20year%C3%A9e.
