Damn.
As if risk of tick-borne encephalitis (which can be vaccinated against) wasn’t enough, now there apparently is a risk of mosquito-borne encephalitis. And this particular virus has killed one person whose work I valued very much (alongside thousands of others during decades, of course).
It spreads sporadically however, and doesn’t transmit between humans in easy ways - so it has been poorly researched and there is no vaccine. I hope there will be one soon enough. Creating vaccines has become considerably easier thanks to the rush to create COVID vaccines. Validating them without emergency regulations and special permissions is a long process however.
Edit: a vaccine against this stuff is likely close enough. And if there is a vaccine, there is soon also an antibody product which can be used to save an unvaccinated person if it gets severe.
As of 2019, six vaccines had progressed to human trials but none had been licensed in the United States. Only the two live attenuated vaccines produced strong immunity after a single dose.[98]
Archived version: https://archive.ph/7yRsO
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. Research into the number of mosquito species resident in Finland has just added number 44: Culex modestus. 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. But the disease is not always mild. The worst outbreak so far in Europe was in Romania, when 800 suspected cases resulted in 17 deaths.
Nice