A Mosquito That Can Carry Dengue Has Landed in the Rockies

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By Erin Douglas, Inside Climate News. 

Excerpt: This mosquito species is native to tropical and subtropical climates, but as climate change pushes up temperatures and warps precipitation patterns, the Aedes aegypti — which can spread Zika, dengue, chikungunya and other potentially deadly viruses — is on the move. It’s popping up all over the Mountain West, where conditions have historically been far too harsh for it to survive. In the last decade, towns in New Mexico and Utah have begun catching Aedes aegypti in their traps year after year, and just this summer, one was found for the first time in Idaho. ...as climate change allows the Aedes aegypti to move northward, survive at higher elevations and stay active for longer into the fall, dengue virus is fast emerging as one of the most dangerous of the world’s diseases transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks, researchers say.... 

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