Climate change may bring tourists a terrible surprise – popular their regions of the European Mediterranean will become endemic for the deadly virus, which has already reached Europe and began to infect tourists. This is how doctors commented on the case of infection of a foreign tourist with dengue fever near Nice, in a resort region in southern France. At the same time, the doctors themselves are already on the verge of panic.
A tourist from the UK, according to the local press, returned from vacation and went to the emergency room in the UK with a three-day fever, pain and rash. She was diagnosed with dengue fever, which used to be mostly “imported” by tourists from tropical countries. However, apparently, the prognosis from doctors is sad: cases of the disease are increasingly being recorded in European resorts. The mosquitoes that spread the dengue virus are also thriving in the south of Europe, moving further north, and in the future the number of cases of the disease will increase, the doctors shared the forecast.
Dr Owain Donnelly from the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases said, that the spread of the disease is “changing rapidly”. “Higher temperatures and more rainfall, as well as increased global trade and tourism, mean we can see more parts of Europe with the perfect mix of factors for dengue outbreaks,” he said. Cases of the virus have already been reported in the resort south of France, as well as in the Spanish islands.
Recall that the “tropical” virus causes fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, vomiting and a spotty rash. Generally, most patients recover, but about 5% of patients have a severe fever that can be fatal. True, the disease has one “plus”: while it is not transmitted from person to person, but is carried by the Asian tiger mosquito. But its numbers are growing in Europe.
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