Is climate change driving the spread of zika virus?

TRANSMITTED by mosquitoes, the Zika virus is spreading at an alarming rate across countries and scientists in Brazil suspect that global warming is exacerbating the problem.
According to the Climate News Network, last year was the hottest on record, with temperatures for the first time about 1°C above pre-industrial levels. But in some parts of Brazil, average temperatures rose between 3° and 5°C, according to data from the Centre for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. The abnormal warming of the Pacific caused by El Nino contributed to this.
Studies by Brazilian scientists show that the Aedes egypti mosquito has spread to 80 per cent of the country, an area of 6.9 million square kilometres, four times larger than a decade ago.
Paolo Zanotto, a virologist at the University of Sao Paulo’s Biomedical Sciences Institute, is co-ordinating a network of laboratories studying the Zika virus.
“We have noticed that dengue has spread to areas that were previously too cold for it, like the south of the country. The number of mosquitoes is increasing, their area of activity is increasing and contact with populations who have never before had contact with dengue is increasing. Global warming is probably collaborating with its spread to previously free areas,” he said.
Christovam Barcellos, a geographer at the Fiocruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro, said: “We have noticed that dengue has spread to areas that were previously too cold for it, like the south of the country.”