Thread by @michaelghead

New from me, in @ConversationUK
"#Dengue in France: tropical diseases in Europe may not be that rare for much longer" theconversation.com/dengue-in-fran…

A bit like #scabies, we do have Neglected Tropical Diseases in Europe
#ntds #beatntds
(1/n)

Few dozen cases of local dengue transmission, more than has been observed before (bit of a theme for #infectiousdiseases in the recent past...)

An infected traveller would have returned to France, been bitten by a local mozzie, with onward transmission from biting new humans.

Seeing more mosquito-driven disease in Europe. Loads of #westnile virus in the lowlands in northern Italy, plus a few cases across other Euro countries

Here in the UK, not seeing that so far. But there are intrepid entomologists who go bug hunting in the marshes to see what they find, to try and pick up early warnings of anything new and nasty

But #climatechange, along with other factors like globalisation, are shifting where we see mosquitoes and their pathogens
(indeed, #malaria was common in Europe about 100 years ago)

We'll be seeing more of things like Dengue, plus #yellowfever (fortunately a vaccine against that one, nasty disease, high mortality rate of a few percent seen in outbreaks)

And Europe isn't likely to escape the March Of The Mosquitoes.

We must be prepared, because we probably aren't right now (heard that one before in relation to #infectiousdiseases?)

theconversation.com/dengue-in-fran…

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