Climate change pushes "African" diseases north: expert - Reuters

[Eugene]

Climate change pushes "African" diseases north: expert

By Jeremy Clarke

1 hour, 3 minutes ago

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Global warming is pushing northwards diseases more commonly
found in developing countries, posing a risk to the financial and physical health
of rich nations, the head of a livestock herders' charity
said.

Steve Sloan, chief executive of GALVmed, said on Friday insect-borne diseases
were increasingly moving north, such as the viral infection bluetongue that has
hit cattle and sheep in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany.

If Kenya's Rift Valley Fever also reached Europe, the impact would be immense,
he said.

"These 'African' diseases have become global issues because of climate change,"
Sloan told Reuters in an interview.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070309/hl_nm/africa_disease_dc_2

[Kiouni]

1. I hate to say this

but maybe this is a good thing. I mean to say that maybe some good can come from a bad situation. The plagues of Africa have long been ignored by the developed world and written off as being natural diseases inherent to the tropic but diseases like malaria are completely preventable but these preventions are ignored because of cost. Maybe with an encroachment of developing world plights on the first world economy will spark a turn for the better in the global struggle against preventable and treatable diseases.

[nealmhughes]

2. Dengue Fever is now not a thing of the tropics, but in the SE USA now.

Yea! First West Nile and armadillos...now dengue. Why no monkeys or parrots on the banks of the Tennessee yet, I wonder...