Melbourne: Global warming may decrease the transmission of dengue, a new study has claimed, countering previous projections that climate change would cause the potentially lethal virus to spread more easily.
Hundreds of millions of people are infected with dengue each year, with some children dying in severe cases, researchers said. "While climate change generally poses a major threat to humanity, it also may reduce the incidence of dengue in some areas," said David Harley, a professor at the Australian National University.
The findings are also relevant to other mosquito-borne viruses including Zika because the mosquitoes that carry dengue also transmit the Zika virus, researchers said. "There is significant concern in countries on the margin of the tropical areas where dengue is mainly found, that with global warming dengue and other mosquito-borne viruses such as Zika will encroach and become common," said Harley.
Previous projections have suggested that climate change will increase transmission of mosquito-borne diseases globally. "Our work, using a mathematical model based on Queensland conditions, suggests that dengue transmission might decrease with greater warming," said Harley.
However, the research findings do not suggest authorities should be complacent about climate change's effect on people's health, he said. "Generally, health and other impacts of climate warming will be negative in Australia and elsewhere in the world," he added. The findings were published in the journal Epidemiology
and Infection.
