Germs, mosquitoes, and other disease carrying bugs that normally are killed by cold weather are thriving in parts of the world that are warmer due to climate change, according to Francesca Dominici, professor of biostatistics and senior associate dean for research at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Insect-borne diseases like dengue fever and malaria are now being reported in higher elevations in Asia and Latin America,” Dominici said in an interview with NPR’s “goats and soda” blog. “Mosquitoes that carry malaria are being found in areas where before they would die.”
Dominici’s comments came in a December 8, 2015 post highlighting some of what’s at stake during the U.N. Conference on Climate Change, held this month in Paris.
The World Health Organization reports that there will be 250,000 more deaths globally each year from malaria, malnutrition, diarrhea, and heat stress as a result of climate change between the years 2030 and 2050, the article stated.
Read the NPR article: Climate Change Is Killing Us, Literally — And Here’s How