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 With
global warming, tropical mosquito-borne diseases are hitting
the U.S. In Florida, the health department says there's
a "very high" chance that mosquitoes with malaria
are flying around, after one man was found to be infected
with the disease.
In the Palm Beach Post, Rochelle Brenner
quotes Tim O'Connor, of the Palm Beach County Health Department,
as saying, "He was outdoors and very active and bitten
by mosquitoes [and] during that time he was highly infectious."
The man would have about two weeks to infect another person
and that person would start to see symptoms in about two
weeks. Symptoms include headaches, vomiting, chills, and
high fever or sweating.
Authorities are hoping that the disease
hasn't spread, since the mosquito population is at its
lowest level in 10 years because of the dry weather. Ed
Bradford, who is in charge of mosquito control for the
county, says Anopheles, the type of mosquito that transmits
malaria, isn't common in the area. "Where this gentleman
lives, there just aren't the canals or that type of environment
where many of these [mosquitoes] live," he says.
"But it only takes one."
"Temperature is only one of many,
many factors in malaria, and in many cases it's totally
irrelevant," says entomologist Paul Reiter. "Many
climate scientists don't know anything about the complexities
of malaria…More rainfall sometimes means more malaria,
it sometimes means less." Mosquitoes reproduce
faster in hot, damp climates but higher temperatures
might trigger floods that wash away the pools of water
in which malaria larva breed, or dry them up. He says
that in 1999, when West Nile virus was first found in
New York, "it also broke out in Volgograd in Russia,
formerly Stalingrad, which is not known for high temperatures."
Malaria kills an African
child every 30 seconds. The disease could arrive in form
of insects stowed away on airplanes. In some countries,
airplane cabins are sprayed with insecticide before passengers
are allowed to leave the plane. Climatologist Alistair
Woodward says, "In terms of malaria and many other
(mosquito-borne) diseases…a changed climate will
stress health care systems in some parts of the world."
Reiter says malaria was defeated
in most in developed countries by draining marshes. Animals
once lived in the same buildings with people, but when
farmers started building barns, this drew mosquitoes away
from humans to feed on cows and other livestock. When
people started moving to cities, they developed window
glass, which kept insects out.
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