More dengue fever and less malaria – mosquito control strategies may need to shift as Africa heats up

From The Conversation
September 9, 2020

As it becomes too warm for comfort, the Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit malaria may lose the battle against climate change in Africa. But a new foe is on the horizon.

When temperatures are too hot for malaria parasites and the Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit them, conditions may be just right for a different mosquito called Aedes aegypti to thrive. This new mosquito brings the threat of many viruses that it carries.

I have been working on vector-borne diseases, including malaria and multiple arthropod-borne viral diseases, for over 20 years. A new paper by Erin Mordecai and colleagues published in Lancet Planetary Health presents an intriguing look into the future where hot temperatures caused by global warming make much of Africa inhospitable for malaria but other mosquito-borne diseases become widespread.

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