Description:
Climate change affect the health of the population, not only through heat waves and waterborne diseases, but also as a result of the expansion of geographical areas conducive to the transmission of vector-borne diseases such as yellow fever, dengue and malaria. Species of mosquitoes, such as the group ‘Anopheles gambiae’, ‘A. funestus’, ‘A. darlingi’, ‘Culex quinquefasciatus’ and ‘Aedes aegypti’, are responsible for propagation of the majority of vector-borne diseases and are sensitive to changes in temperature (Githeko et al. 2009). The impact which higher temperatures have on the spreading of the mosquitos has already been recorded. While in 1970 the only areas in the region infected by Aedes aegypti – the mosquito responsible for transmitting yellow fever and dengue – were Venezuela, Suriname, the Guyanas and the Caribbean countries, in 2002 virtually the only areas unaffected by these tropical diseases were the southern portions of the continent.