Guardian - Public Health Specialists Urge UK To Prepare Now For Malaria's Return

[hatrack]

Leading health experts are urging the government to take action against the growing threat that mosquito-borne diseases, including potentially fatal malaria, could soon arrive in the UK. The disturbing recommendation to "act now before it is too late" is being made as a growing body of evidence indicates that what were once thought of as tropical diseases are being found ever closer to the UK.

Health experts meeting at the annual public health conference of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health later this week will hear that rising incidences of a growing list of pest-borne diseases are now a "serious" cause for concern in the UK.

The conference will be told that it would be complacent to think that diseases such as dengue fever, malaria and Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, now present on the European continent but once considered "exotic and confined to faraway places", will not emerge in the UK.

"With predicted changes to climate in the UK, characterised by warming and wetter summers providing perfect breeding grounds for a number of pest-borne diseases, we need to consider some robust public health measures to minimise the potential outbreaks," said Julie Barratt, director of the CIEH.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/may/05/uk-tropical-disease-malaria-threat

[Newest Reality]

1. Climate Change Much?

The amount of potential and even rapid transformation of our environment due to climate change is staggering.

From the impact on flora and fauna to floods, storms and droughts, we ain't seen nuthin' yet. The planet is getting a climactic paint job and the weather engine is revving up from all the fuel.

We may be the first generation to ever experience a bald Arctic region, devoid of ice. The amount of solar energy that is absorbed will increase, then the permafrost in other areas will melt, releasing giga-tons of CO2 and it could be something like nitrous oxide at a drag race accelerating the entire process and taking us to that dreaded 2-degree mark and beyond.