Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe ... - MemoFin.fr

Climate impacts on socio-economic systems and healthMap 4.14 Change in distribution of Aedes albopictus in Europe between 2008 and 2011Note:Areas marked as '2011' indicate that the tiger mosquito was detected in 2011 for the first time. They include areas of knowngeographical expansion of A. albopictus in France, northern Italy and Spain where vector surveillance has been in place since2008 but also areas in Albania, Greece, and central and southern Italy, where the first detection of the vector in 2011 couldbe the result of increased vector surveillance rather than actual geographical expansion. '2008–2010' refers to all areaswhere the vector has been present before 2011. Indoor presence corresponds to the presence recorded in greenhouses.Source: See http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/activities/diseaseprogrammes/emerging_and_vector_borne_diseases/Pages/VBORNET.aspx.© European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 2012.Several disease outbreaks transmitted by themosquito A. albopictus were recently reported inEurope: Chikungunya in Italy (Rezza et al., 2007)and in France (Grandadam, 2011), as well as localtransmissions of Dengue in France (La Ruche et al.,2010) and Croatia in 2010 (Gjenero-Margan et al.,2011). In all cases the virus has been importedto Europe by travellers. Some parts of Europeare currently climatically suitable to A. aegypti,a primary vector for Dengue (Map 4.15, right).Malaria was largely eradicated in Europe in thesecond half of the 20th century (Semenza andMenne, 2009). However, the malaria vectors(Anopheles mosquitos) are still present in much ofEurope, and a few cases of local transmission occureach year (Florescu et al., 2011). The risk of malariare-establishment in a particular region dependson its receptivity, which refers to climatic andecological factors favouring malaria transmissionand to vector abundance, and on vulnerabilityto infection, which refers to either proximity tomalarial areas or influx of infected people and/orinfective mosquitoes (WHO, 2007).Human cases of West Nile Virus (WNV) arerelatively rare in Europe, and roughly 80 % ofthe cases are asymptomatic. The virus primarilyinfects birds and is transmitted to humans throughmosquitoes (Culex sp.). WNV outbreaks in Europehave been associated with high temperature,rainfall and humidity (Paz and Albersheim, 2008;Semenza and Menne, 2009; Paz, 2012). Other factorsinfluencing the WNV risk include the populationsof migrating birds and reservoir hosts, and earlydetection and diagnosis.Climate change, impacts and vulnerability in Europe 2012197