Climate Change Could Bring Mosquito Diseases to Britain – Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

Malaria was the scourge of early 1600s Britain, during the Little Ice Age, but today’s scientists think insect borne diseases need a warm climate.

Climate change could bring insect-borne tropical diseases to UK, scientists warn

Mosquito experts say cuts in aid will lead to collapse of crucial surveillance and control in endemic countries

Anna Bawden Health and social affairs correspondent Sat 24 May 2025 01.31 AEST

Climate change could make the UK vulnerable to insect-transmitted tropical diseases that were previously only found in hot countries, scientists have warned, urging ministers to redouble efforts to contain their spread abroad.

Leading mosquito experts said the government’s cuts to international aid would lead to a collapse in crucial surveillance, control and treatment programmes in endemic countries, leading to more deaths.

This week, the UK Health Security Agency announced the discovery of West Nile virus in UK mosquitoes for the first time. The agency said it had found no evidence of transmission to humans and the risk to the British public was low.

West Nile virus is transmitted by mosquitoes and, like dengue fever, chikungunya and zika, used to be confined to hotter regions of the world. But global heating has expanded the geographical spread of West Nile virus and other tropical diseases into cooler areas, including parts of northern and western Europe. In 2024, there were more than 1,400 cases of locally acquired West Nile virus and several hundred cases of dengue, mostly in France and Italy.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/may/23/climate-change-could-bring-insect-borne-tropical-diseases-to-uk-scientists-warn

Gee I wonder how West Nile virus got into UK mosquitoes?

There is zero doubt that insect diseases have no problem thriving in cold climates. Malaria used to be a horrific problem in the far North.

The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure

Department of Geography and Faculty of History

The not-so tropical disease: malaria in northern Europe

Mathias Mølbak Ingholt 

Many people know that malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that largely occurs in tropical regions. However, it is not so well known that malaria was endemic in parts of northern Europe – including Britain – until relatively recently.  

Unlike Plasmodium falciparum malaria, which today dominates in Sub-Saharan Africa with high mortality rates, European malaria was caused by Plasmodium vivax, a species with low mortality. It was eradicated from Europe only relatively recently, in the 20th century – yet surprisingly little is known about its history, and there is still some debate about how important a disease it was in the past.

Malaria, agues, and fevers 

The word “malaria” comes from the Italian words mal and aria, meaning “bad air”. This was a reference to the miasma theory of disease, according to which disease is caused by exposure to unhealthy vapours that emerged spontaneously. These vapours were believed to have existed in marshes and wetlands, and these ecotypes were stigmatized as very unhealthy in 17th-19th century literature. In the case of Britain, wetlands were associated with “agues” and “marsh fevers”, and in Denmark and Germany, wetlands were associated with “koldfeber” (cold fever) and “fevers” in general.  

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Read more: https://www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/03/13/malaria-in-northern-europe/

We are all used to climate disinformation, but I find nonsensical attempts to link the risk of insect borne disease outbreaks to a failure to install enough solar panels and wind turbines particularly distressing.

Responding sensibly to the risk of outbreaks or outbreaks which occur could save thousands of lives.

Climate alarmists who muddy the water on this issue, who sow confusion with their dogma, in my opinion are endangering people’s lives – including the lives of people I care about.

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