Climate change is not coming – it is already here. Scholars are still arguing about whether the climate shift will settle in permanently or pass us by. But one thing is already clear: Tropical insects have already made their way to Europe. And it’s not just because of cheap long-haul flights….
The return of malaria?
Malaria, West Nile fever, leishmaniasis – to name just a few originally tropical diseases – have come under the scrutiny of climate and entomologists. It is true that there have been malaria epidemics in Germany before, because in the marshlands of East Frisia, for example, malaria was long considered “endemic” – that is, part of the population was consistently infected with malaria. But the use of pesticides and the draining of the marshes made it possible to eradicate the disease here, and there have been no indigenous cases of malaria in Germany since the early 1950s.
Although there is currently no malaria alert again in the Federal Republic (yet), the external conditions for the return of the disease have improved dramatically. The mosquito species that transmit malaria are still native to Germany. However, the increased temperatures provide better conditions for the malaria pathogen to mature in the mosquito: the “breeding temperature” rises to an optimal level.
The advance of the exotics
Another problematic case is the sandfly, vector of the dreaded leishmaniasis. Originally native to the Arabian Mediterranean, it has now arrived in southern France – and there is no reason to assume that it will stop at the French-German border. On the contrary: sandflies, which are incidentally so tiny that they can slip through any mosquito net, have now also been found in Baden-Württemberg.
This is dangerous, among other things, because many Mediterranean travelers bring stray dogs with them from their vacation trips. These so-called “Ibiza dogs” are often infected with leishmaniasis.
Until now, there was no carrier in this country, namely the sand fly, to transmit the pathogens of leishmaniasis from dogs to humans. But the arrival of the sand fly in Baden-Württemberg makes it clear that the risk of infection is expanding.
