Essay by Eric Worrall
Malaria was endemic in Northern Europe and the USA during the Little Ice Age. But most people don’t realise how prevalent Malaria was in previous centuries, because our ancestors called Malaria “Ague“.
Europe’s medical schools to give more training on diseases linked to climate crisis
New climate network will teach trainee doctors more about heatstroke, dengue and malaria and role of global warming in health
Kat Lay Global health correspondent Mon 14 Oct 2024 17.00 AEDT
Mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria will become a bigger part of the curriculum at medical schools across Europe in the face of the climate crisis.
Future doctors will also have more training on how to recognise and treat heatstroke, and be expected to take the climate impact of treatments such as inhalers for asthma into account, medical school leaders said, announcing the formation of the European Network on Climate & Health Education (Enche).
Led by the University of Glasgow, 25 medical schools from countries including the UK, Belgium and France will integrate lessons on climate into their education of more than 10,000 students.
Glasgow University’s Dr Camille Huser,co-chair of the network, said: “The doctors of the future will see a different array of presentations and diseases that they are not seeing now. They need to be aware of that so they can recognise them.”
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/oct/14/european-network-climate-health-education-medical-schools-diseases-students-dengue-malaria-heatstroke
The problem with calling diseases like Malaria a “climate change” disease is that Malaria has no problem thriving in cold climates;
Endemic malaria: an ‘indoor’ disease in northern Europe. Historical data analysed
Lena Huldén 1,✉, Larry Huldén 2, Kari Heliövaara 1
- Author information
- Article notes
- Copyright and License information
PMCID: PMC1090613 PMID: 15847704
Background
Endemic northern malaria reached 68°N latitude in Europe during the 19th century, where the summer mean temperature only irregularly exceeded 16°C, the lower limit needed for sporogony of Plasmodium vivax. Because of the available historical material and little use of quinine, Finland was suitable for an analysis of endemic malaria and temperature.
Methods
Annual malaria death frequencies during 1800–1870 extracted from parish records were analysed against long-term temperature records in Finland, Russia and Sweden. Supporting data from 1750–1799 were used in the interpretation of the results. The life cycle and behaviour of the anopheline mosquitoes were interpreted according to the literature.
Results
Malaria frequencies correlated strongly with the mean temperature of June and July of the preceding summer, corresponding to larval development of the vector. Hatching of imagoes peaks in the middle of August, when the temperature most years is too low for the sporogony of Plasmodium. After mating some of the females hibernate in human dwellings. If the female gets gametocytes from infective humans, the development of Plasmodium can only continue indoors, in heated buildings.
Conclusion
Northern malaria existed in a cold climate by means of summer dormancy of hypnozoites in humans and indoor transmission of sporozoites throughout the winter by semiactive hibernating mosquitoes. Variable climatic conditions did not affect this relationship. The epidemics, however, were regulated by the population size of the mosquitoes which, in turn, ultimately was controlled by the temperatures of the preceding summer.
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Read more: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1090613/
There has been an uptick in Malaria in Europe recently. So if climate change is not the main driver, what is causing the recent uptick in Malaria cases?
From the American society of Microbiology;
The History of Malaria in the United States
Sept. 15, 2023
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While malaria infection is still prevalent south of the Sahara and in parts of Oceania, such as Papua New Guinea, prior to the 1880s the disease was also endemic in areas that have no longer sustained transmission, including the United States. Recent cases of malaria acquired in Southern U.S. states have raised concerns about future outbreaks, climate change and the possibility of sustained transmission in areas where the disease is no longer considered to be endemic.
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CDC reports that these locally-acquired cases of malaria are the first in the U.S. in the past 2 decades. Malaria typically resurfaces via imported cases in the U.S. after an individual travels to a malaria endemic region or country. However, locally-acquired malaria cases can occur, as the Anopheles mosquito vectors (which transmit this disease to humans) do exist throughout the U.S. Importantly, with COVID-19 travel restrictions lifted, there is more opportunity for international travel. If an individual becomes infected in an endemic country, then there is a possibility for infected individuals (with or without symptoms) to seed local transmission. For example, in 2003 there were 8 cases of locally-acquired P. vivax malaria identified in Palm Beach County, Fla.
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Those in the global malarial community are at a perilous tipping point; the progress made prior to COVID-19 has stalled, and the countries hardest hit by the disease are facing multiple fronts of the infectious disease war. Likewise, the ongoing climate changes occurring around the world, which impact the ability of vectors (mosquitoes, ticks, flies, etc.) to expand their geographic range into areas of susceptible populations to malaria and other infectious diseases, continue to create ongoing and new regions for the spread of vector-borne disease.
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Read more: https://asm.org/articles/2023/september/the-history-of-malaria-in-the-united-states
While the CDC article above does genuflect to climate change, two points are very clear;
- The mosquitoes which carry Malaria are already prevalent throughout the United States, and have been for a long time.
- The main source of Malaria in the United States and presumably other countries like Europe is infected people arriving from Malaria hotspots.
My point is, you don’t need climate change to make Malaria prevalent in a temperate Western country. Mosquitoes which can carry Malaria have no problem thriving in any climate where water is available and Summer temperatures reach at least 16C (61F).
Anyone who thinks mosquitoes can’t thrive in Arctic climates has never visited the Arctic – midges, many of which can carry Malaria, are a horrible nuisance at certain times of the year in high latitudes. Calling Malaria a tropical disease, implying that a tropical climate is required for Malaria to thrive, is a gross distortion of the truth. Teaching doctors that climate change causes Malaria is as absurd as teaching doctors how to use magic to cure a fever.
Shakespeare himself may have died from Malaria. According to Wikipedia, “… Half a century later, John Ward, the vicar of Stratford, wrote in his notebook: “Shakespeare, Drayton, and Ben Jonson had a merry meeting and, it seems, drank too hard, for Shakespeare died of a fever there contracted …“.
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