EU Urges Preparation For New Vector-Borne Diseases - Rift Valley Fever, Chikungunya, Dengue - AFP

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Europe could face an increase in outbreaks of diseases carried by insects and rodents as the climate on the continent becomes hotter and wetter, EU health experts said Friday. "These diseases are closely linked to climate change ... We need to address this risk," Renaud Lancelot of the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) told reporters in Stockholm.

Lancelot was one of 23 health experts from across Europe attending a two-day European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) meeting on the heightened risk of so-called vector-borne diseases, or illnesses carried by mosquitoes, sand-flies, ticks and rodents. "The climate and environmental changes being predicted by experts will alter the risk to Europe from vector-borne diseases," ECDC head Zsuzsanna Jakab said in a statement. "We are likely to see the spread of diseases such as tick-borne encephalitis, or even chikungunya fever, to places where they have not been seen before," she added.

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"Authoritative climate scenarios for the future predict that many parts of Europe will become hotter and wetter," ECDC said. "These changes are likely to impact on disease vectors, such as mosquitoes transmitting West Nile fever, chikungunya fever and possibly even dengue or Rift Valley fever," it added.

The agency cautioned that tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), which is considered one of the most dangerous infections of the central nervous system in Europe, had also been spreading rapidly across the continent. "The number of human cases in all endemic regions of Europe has increased by almost 400 percent in the last 30 years," it said.

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http://www.terradaily.com/2007/080612124910.op4uly3k.html

[lapfog_1]

1. We will likely see Dengue fever in the US

throughout the south and possibly midwest.