Last year there were 1,133 cases of West Nile virus infection in Europe, the majority of which were locally acquired rather than in infected travellers, and 92 deaths.
In Italy, there were 436 cases of chikungunya in 2017, while 2019 saw the first locally acquired cases of Zika in southern France., the pest control company, is anticipating an increase in mosquitos in new regions of the world that could carry disease: it has set up a “blood room” in its UK innovation centre that feeds blood donated from humans to the insects in its lab to study their behaviour.
Increased surveillance is also taking place at truck stops, motorway service stations and distribution warehouses in case mosquitos use lorries carrying freight from the continent as a route into the UK. “Factors behind this increasing risk include climate and environmental change, the globalisation of travel and trade as well as changes in land use. While we have not yet seen cases of diseases such as dengue fever and West Nile virus acquired in England, in recent years we have seen small outbreaks of infection as close as France.