Australia and the Pacific Islands are facing epidemics of malaria and dengue fever because of global warming, a report has claimed.
By Bonnie Malkin in SydneyLast Updated: 6:20PM GMT 20 Nov 2008
Mosquito: the report claims they will move further south as temperatures warm, spreading malaria Photo: AFP
The tropical diseases will spread south from south east Asia as climate change allows mosquitoes to travel to parts of the world that used to be too cold for them to survive.
Australia has been malaria-free since 1962, but research by Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank, estimates that due to rising temperatures, malaria could spread as far south as Gladstone on the mid-Queensland coast. It said outbreaks of dengue fever could reach Rockhampton, 100 kilometres further north.
Malaria kills two million people, mostly children, worldwide each year.
Dengue fever is also deadly, causing an estimated 50 to 100 million cases annually and approximately 25,000 deaths. Experts agree that this number is rising every year.
The report, The Sting of Climate Change: Malaria and Dengue Fever in Maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, predicts that in countries where the mosquito-borne diseases are already present, the situation will worsen as temperatures climb.
"Mosquitoes are very sensitive to changes in climate. Warmer conditions allow the mosquitoes and the malaria parasite itself to develop and grow more quickly, while wetter conditions let mosquitoes live longer and breed more prolifically," it said.
"The sting of climate change is an international public health crisis being felt on Australia's tropical doorstep. It may soon be pressing on Australia's northern shores as well."
Malaria is already a problem in Papua New Guinea's lowlands, but the research suggests that as the world warms up mosquitoes will be able to travel into the country's western highlands, affecting up to another two million people live.
In Fiji, it estimates climate change could also increase the incidence of dengue fever by up to 30 per cent.
The report's author, Dr Sarah Potter, has called on the Australian government to spend money modelling the spread of malaria and dengue fever and tighten quarantine and screening processes of visitors to northern Australia.
Posts
