In view of global warming, RKI President Lothar Wieler calls for exotic diseases in this country to be considered. “Climate change is leading to an expansion of the habitats for mosquitoes and ticks in Germany,” said the head of the Robert Koch Institute to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
“Many mosquito and tick species can transmit viral, bacterial and parasitic pathogens,” says Wieler. These could be zika or dengue viruses, for example. He also named the West Nile virus and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) as examples.
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“A return of malaria, which is caused by plasmodia, is also possible.” It is therefore important to sensitize the medical profession in this country to these diseases. “This is also an important concern of the RKI.”
The health policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Andrew Ullmann, also expects that due to the climate-related spread of tick and mosquito populations, diseases will increasingly appear in Europe and Germany “that were previously unknown in our climatic regions”.
Ullmann asked to react to the development. “Further research and innovation initiatives are necessary to better understand the effects of climate change on the spread of pathogens and to take effective measures,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
