A virology expert has warned a species of potentially deadly mosquitoes is spreading rapidly across Europe and revealed how they could appear in the UK.
Professor Stephen Griffin, a professor of cancer virology at the University of Leeds, opened up about how Asian tiger mosquitoes are spreading “profoundly” in southern Europe.
The insects can carry 20 diseases, including dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, Rift Valley fever, West Nile virus and Japanese encephalitis, according to the National Library of Medicine.
It explained that the mosquito spread from Southeast Asia to other countries via shipments, with one example being used tyres infested with eggs. However, there could be another reason why the insect’s range is “expanding” closer to home.
Professor Griffin told Express.co.uk: “There’s very good evidence that the range of those mosquitoes is expanding already.”
He continued: “You started to see them in southern Europe; for example, in recent years.
“And you could see that from the Zika outbreak in Brazil. It reaches up into the southern US; you know, yellow fever and other things like that.”
When asked whether climate change could see such dangerous insects reach the UK shores, Professor Griffin responded: “Yeah, I mean there’s very good evidence that the range of those mosquitoes is expanding already“
He explained how the Asian tiger mosquito is both “very robust” and “very adept at spreading” and is able to expand its habitat, with the insect spotted in the likes of Italy and Spain.
Professor Griffin, though, warns that as climate change continues, we’ll “almost certainly see an extension of that”. In addition, he warned that there had been predictions that “malaria could return to these sorts of climates”.
He said that it’s already occurring in southern Europe and ticks are “expanding their host range”. He then explained the concerning scope of arboviruses or arthropod-borne viruses (which include ticks and mosquitoes).
Professor Griffin continued: “And there are hundreds of different types of virus that cause those sorts of diseases. You know, either spread by mosquitoes or ticks, and yes, that is a serious concern.
“Things like Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, for example, which is spread by ticks, which is endemic in certain regions in Asia. But it’s spreading and that’s a nasty one.
“And there are so many different versions, but they tend to be these flaviviruses so related to dengue etc.. or the alphavirus is related to chikungunya or bunyaviruses like Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever.”
