Malaria – an ancient killer which once plagued north Kent’s wetlands as well as much of the rest of Britain – could return as the country’s climate shifts.
Already clinicians in Essex and Kent are being warned to check for signs of another potentially fatal disease, West Nile Virus.
“Just before Dickens’ day, malaria was endemic here,” said Alexander Vaux, a senior medical entomologist at UKHSA, gesturing at the grassy marshland that merges with the Thames. “The children in [Cooling] graveyard, they would all have died of malaria.”
A particular concern is the Aedes family of mosquitoes, which carry viruses including dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika.
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***Telegraph writer Sarah Newey writes:***
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Malaria – an ancient killer which once plagued north Kent’s wetlands as well as much of the rest of Britain – could return as the country’s climate shifts.
Already clinicians in Essex and Kent are being warned to check for signs of another potentially fatal disease, West Nile Virus.
“Just before Dickens’ day, malaria was endemic here,” said Alexander Vaux, a senior medical entomologist at UKHSA, gesturing at the grassy marshland that merges with the Thames. “The children in [Cooling] graveyard, they would all have died of malaria.”
A particular concern is the Aedes family of mosquitoes, which carry viruses including dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika.
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**Read more for free:** [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/why-official-mosquitoes-hunters-kent-fear-new-surge-malaria/](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/why-official-mosquitoes-hunters-kent-fear-new-surge-malaria/)
Malaria is pretty trivial to wipe out in a developed country
Italy used to have a massive malaria problem but after the war they wiped it out in a few years
Mate got bit by one last week – in Preston !