An analysis suggests that climate change could turn Toronto into a mosquito breeding ground for tropical viral diseases.
Dengue fever and Zika virus were once classified as diseases of the tropics. But according to a new study, warmer weather creates favorable conditions for the mosquitoes that carry these viruses to breed, putting temperate climate cities like Toronto at risk.
Toronto has a up to 61% chance of becoming a host for the Aedes mosquito within the next 10 years, according to modeling by Toronto software company BlueDot. Known as the ‘Asian tiger mosquito’, this mosquito is a carrier of the dengue fever virus, which kills 40,000 people worldwide every year, and the Zika virus, which can cause birth defects in the fetus when pregnant women are infected.
But experts stress that just because these mosquitoes live doesn’t mean that Toronto will immediately become a hotbed of tropical diseases.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Isaac Bogochi pointed out that Aedes aegyptivirus has already been found in Windsor, Ontario, but dengue fever still occurs more than 2,000 kilometers south of Florida, USA.
“If you consider that climate change-related phenomena are occurring all over the planet, you will see the insect habitats that transmit various viruses expand as well,” he said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 725,000 people die from mosquito bites worldwide each year, making it the animal that kills the most humans on the planet.