Virus-carrying tropical mosquitos found in Finland as climate heats

alphacyberranger@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 206 points –
Virus-carrying tropical mosquitos found in Finland as climate heats
theguardian.com
7

This is the best summary I could come up with:


While the heatwaves, wildfires and floods are the most dramatic examples of the way burning fossil fuels is altering our climate, there are less obvious dangers.

This is a surprise because this is a tropical species and a known carrier of the West Nile virus, which causes an illness that used to associated mainly with central Africa.

Since Finland is well to the north of the UK and considerably colder, it is of no surprise that this species has already moved into Kent and Essex and probably much farther north in the UK if anyone cared to look for it.

In fact, the UK Health Security Agency has known that an outbreak of West Nile virus has been possible since 2012, when large populations of this species were discovered in marshes in south-east England.

The possible danger season for catching the virus is in August after a bite by an infected mosquito, but in most cases the symptoms are flu-like aches and pains so most people would not think to trouble their doctors if they felt unwell.

The worst outbreak so far in Europe was in Romania, when 800 suspected cases resulted in 17 deaths.


I'm a bot and I'm open source!

No voi vittu perkele

perkele

This is the only Finnish word I know, so I can already discern the tone you wrote this with.

Agreed. We've been safe from all the bullshit here. Looks like those days might soon be over.

Well lads, if tropical mosquitos are in the cold countries we are fecked.