Olde Hornet
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Health officials warn US is unprepared for growing disease threat: ‘If we don’t do anything … it’s going to get worse’
"We don’t pay enough attention in the United States to what is going on in other countries."
What is happening?
Over the past five decades, mosquito populations have increased tenfold in North America, according to one paper published in Nature Communications.Those mosquitoes can carry tropical diseases such as dengue, Zika, and chikungunya, as well as malaria — all of which have been on the rise in the United States.
Why is this concerning?
At a recent workshop held at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine in Washington, D.C., global health experts warned of the dangers of ignoring this growing threat.“If we don’t do anything, which is basically what we’re doing right now, it’s going to get worse,” medical entomologist Tom Scott said. “The damage from inaction is enormous. It’s unacceptable. It’s unethical.”
“We don’t pay enough attention in the United States to what is going on in other countries. We just kind of watch it spread and we don’t prepare ourselves for that virus potentially coming to the U.S.,” Laura Kramer, director of the Arbovirus Laboratory at State University of New York at Albany, said. “That happened with Zika, chikungunya and West Nile.”