The Impact of Weather Variability on Mosquito and Major Mosquito-Borne Diseases in China

Abstract

A great number of studies have documented that there is a clear increasing trend in the global average temperature during the last century. Based on the scenario of business-as-usual, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected that the global surface average temperature will exceed 4 °C by the end of 2100 compared to that in 1850-1890. Climate change has been regarded as the biggest global-health threat of the 21st century. Epidemiological studies have showed significant impacts of weather variation associated with climate change on population health, including transmission pattern of some infectious diseases, and most importantly suspected impacts geographical expansion and emergence and re-emergence of mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue fever, malaria and Japanese encephalitis, which has posed great health burden to Chinese population in its history. Mosquito-borne diseases are extremely sensitive to the weather variation, such as temperature, rainfall, humidity, etc. In China, although the impact of climate variation on important mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue fever and malaria, has been investigated in many countries, there are only a few studies conducted in China. Chinese people may suffer greater adverse impacts from climate change due to a higher population density, relatively crowded living conditions, and poor socio-economic status. A series of individual but interrelated studies were carried out for this dissertation. The overall objective was to provide a comprehensive analysis of potential impacts of weather variability on the dynamics of mosquitoes and transmission pattern of major mosquito-borne diseases in the context of climate change.