Article Review: The Malaria Virus
Introduction
This paper reviews and analyzes a published article that deals with the malaria virus. The subject article was published in the Guardian newspaper on 5 May 2013 and was entitled: “Climate changes could bring malaria to the UK”, by Jamie Doward.
Article Summary:
Doward opens the article with the news that leading health experts are warning the UK government that diseases carried by mosquitoes – including malaria – are becoming a growing threat for the UK. Malaria is an infectious disease prevalent in tropical climates and is typically spread by parasites carried by mosquitoes (Mandal, n.d.), and according to Doward is becoming likely soon to reach the UK, along with other diseases once thought of as exclusively tropical.
Doward’s article explains that the climate changes predicted for the UK, bringing summers that are likely to be warmer and wetter could provide ideal breeding environments for some of these diseases, meaning that urgent and “robust” measures are needed to minimize the likelihood of outbreaks. A published report in 2012 by the Health Protection Agency stated that “it is likely that the range and activity of many ticks and mosquitoes will increase across the UK by the 2080s.” But now some experts are warning that the timescale has shortened and that malaria was found in Greece in 2011 and Dengue occurred in Croatia and France in 2010. It was also noted by Doward that the greater extent of salt marshes on UK coasts and the increased incidence of flooding makes the terrain more attractive for mosquitoes. Other diseases such as Lyme disease and West Nile virus are also on the increase in the EU. Lyme disease is spread by very small ticks carried on animals such as deer, foxes and rabbits. Those tiny ticks can detect prey (including humans) from the exhaled carbon dioxide, and – because they inject an anaesthetic with their bite – they are often not detected.
Climate change is not the only cause of the spread of these diseases, according to Doward’s article. The spread of these diseases is also made more likely by the modern lifestyles including the urban sprawl, hence the need to properly monitor and understand the mechanisms involved. The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health has called for an EU-wide policy in respect of mosquito control and more collaboration between its member states. Other measures should include a standardized notification system for these diseases, coordinated centrally, as well as harmonizing insecticide use guidelines and establishing better surveillance systems.
Article Review:
The article provides an interesting, informative, yet rather worrying insight into this news that mosquitoes may be heading for the UK shores, which could dramatically extend the territory where malaria can be a problem.
As was mentioned in the other referenced article by Mandal, malaria is a major killer in many countries, particularly in Africa, so the threat of malaria reaching the EU and across the English Channel to the UK will require action and must be treated as of genuine concern.
On the other hand, there is a suspicion that there is a certain amount of sensationalism in the Doward article. Both Croatia and (southern) France have much warmer climates than the UK, as does Greece where malaria was reported in 2011. Those hotter countries would probably be some years ahead of the UK in supporting the creatures that carry the diseases.
The article is very readable and informative, and does provide a clear warning that malaria and other “tropical” diseases could be a problem for the EU and then the UK, which is happily to some extent protected by not being on mainland Europe. Even so, the authorities are right to prepare for the possible spread of these diseases to UK shores, notwithstanding that maybe the timescale is not quite as tight as Doward’s article would have us believe.
References
Mandal, Ananya. (n.d.). “Malaria – What is Malaria?” News Medical. Retrieved from http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Malaria.aspx
Doward, Jamie. (5 May 2013). “Climate changes could bring malaria to the UK.” The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/may/05/uk-tropical-disease-malaria-threat
