When Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, contracted West Nile virus, he was unprepared for the severity of the disease. Now, he's warning that as rising temperatures exacerbate the spread, people need to be on high alert to avoid the disease that made him feel like he'd been "hit by a truck."
What's happening?
After contracting the virus, Dr. Fauci was hospitalized for six days, USA Today reported.
"I've never been as sick in my life. Ever," Dr. Fauci told health news site STAT. "By far, this is the worst I've ever been with an illness."
While his case was more severe than most, it serves as a timely warning that West Nile — among other mosquito-borne diseases — is not to be underestimated. And while it's been endemic in the U.S. for 25 years, the risk of its spread is increasing as breeding conditions grow more favorable with global heating. Unfortunately, no vaccine or cure exists as of now.
"We've learned a lot, but we still have the same tools available that we did back then to prevent diseases," medical epidemiologist Dr. Erin Staples told USA Today. "We need to do better."
She also called mosquitoes "the world's deadliest animal."
Why is this so concerning?
The breeding conditions for the culex mosquito, which spreads West Nile, are simple: Any warm stagnant water will work.
Unfortunately, with the increase in severe precipitation and higher atmospheric temperatures due to a changing climate, their breeding season is expanding.
According to research in The Journal of Climate Change and Health, the culex isn't the only mosquito species that is expected to respond resiliently to planetary heating. Longer breeding seasons and expanded geographical territories will put people at risk for higher exposure to West Nile as well as chikungunya, dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and more.
When it comes to West Nile, the disease has been documented on the rise everywhere from Texas to California.
What's being done to slow the spread?
Ultimately, limiting the expansion of disease-spreading mosquito populations will come down to the actions taken by world governments and corporations to minimize the weather-changing emissions they produce. But more immediately, scientists are hard at work finding solutions — from developing a simple motorized tool that causes ripples in standing water to prevent the laying of eggs, to testing methods to make pesticides and repellents even stronger.
While there is no vaccine available to prevent the spread of West Nile in humans, people can take protective measures to try to avoid being bitten. This includes covering or draining standing water, wearing mosquito repellents (or growing mosquito-repellant plants), and wearing long-sleeved clothing.
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