From its first appearance in Albania in 1979, the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes Albopictus) It has spread further and further north, reaching central Europe. The insect, also present in our country for some time, conveys several viruses that can be contracted by us humans and cause diseases such as Zika, Chikungunya and Dengue.
Now a study published on Global Change Biology It suggests that the increase in temperatures would be accelerating its diffusion increasingly north, and that within ten years the tiger mosquito could reach the north of France, and from there to reach London.
And faster. To reach their conclusions, the researchers used climatic and environmental models to monitor the expansion of the A. albopictus in the old continent. The results show that in 18 years the mosquito has tripled its expansion speed in France, going from about 6.5 km of annual movement of 2006 to about 13 km of 2024.
This sudden expansion would be due to the most favorable climatic conditions of the northern areas, where temperatures are becoming more myths. Next to Southern Europe, for some time now the ideal habitat of this insect, within a few years we could therefore see the tiger mosquito also in the city such as Strasbourg, Vienna, London and Frankfurt.
According to the researchers, the recent outbreaks of Dengue recorded in Europe could therefore be a spy of a wider trend. In recent decades, cases have increased vertiginously, from just over 500,000 to 2000 to 14.6 million in 2024. What has been discovered is in line with the results of another study published last May, which analyzing 35 years of spreading dense and Chikungunya had detected a significant increase in European outbreaks, favored by the spread of the tiger mosquito in the old continent.
Do we therefore expect that diseases like Zika, Dengue or Chikungunya become endemic in Europe? The answer is could be – And the fault would be ours, that we travel, pollute, change environments and habitats believing that our actions have no consequences.