Essay by Eric Worrall
Famous British playwright William Shakespeare wrote about endemic Malaria in Britain in the 1500s. Malaria was the scourge of Scandinavia and Russia right up until the 20th century. But this has not stopped greens falsely claiming Malaria is a disease of warm climates.
Mosquito-borne diseases spreading in Europe due to climate crisis, says expert
Illnesses such as dengue and malaria to reach unaffected parts of northern Europe, America, Asia and Australia, conference to hear
Helena Horton Environment reporter
Thu 25 Apr 2024 14.00 AEST
Mosquito-borne diseases are spreading across the globe, and particularly in Europe, due to climate breakdown, an expert has said.
The insects spread illnesses such as malaria and dengue fever, the prevalences of which have hugely increased over the past 80 years as global heating has given them the warmer, more humid conditions they thrive in.
Prof Rachel Lowe who leads the global health resilience group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center in Spain, has warned that mosquito-borne disease outbreaks are set to spread across currently unaffected parts of northern Europe, Asia, North America and Australia over the next few decades.
…
“Global warming due to climate change means that the disease vectors that carry and spread malaria and dengue [fever] can find a home in more regions, with outbreaks occurring in areas where people are likely to be immunologically naive and public health systems unprepared,” Lowe said.
“The stark reality is that longer hot seasons will enlarge the seasonal window for the spread of mosquito-borne diseases and favour increasingly frequent outbreaks that are increasingly complex to deal with.”
…
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/25/mosquito-borne-diseases-spreading-in-europe-due-to-climate-crisis-says-expert
Studying Shakespeare is, or was until recently, a staple of British education. So why do people swallow the mistruth that Malaria is a tropical disease? Why doesn’t everyone know about Shakespeare’s references to Malaria?
The reason is back in Shakespeare’s day, they called Malaria something else. Shakespeare’s 16th century word for fevers like Malaria and Dengue was “Ague“.
From Open Source Shakespeare;
| 1 | Henry IV, Part I [III, 1] | Hotspur (Henry Percy) | 1611 | Home without boots, and in foul weather too! How ‘scapes he agues, in the devil’s name? |
| 2 | Henry IV, Part I [IV, 1] | Hotspur (Henry Percy) | 2337 | No more, no more: worse than the sun in March, This praise doth nourish agues. |
| 3 | Henry VIII [I, 1] | Duke of Buckingham | 40 | An untimely ague Stay’d me a prisoner in my chamber when Those suns of glory, those two lights of men, Met in the vale of Andren. |
| 4 | Julius Caesar [II, 2] | Caesar | 1093 | As that same ague which hath made you lean. What is ‘t o’clock? |
| 5 | King John [III, 4] | Constance | 1455 | As dim and meagre as an ague‘s fit, And so he’ll die; and, rising so again, When I shall meet him in the court of heaven I shall not know him: therefore never, never Must I behold my pretty Arthur more. |
| 6 | King Lear [IV, 6] | Lear | 2706 | ‘Tis a lie- I am not ague-proof. |
| 7 | Macbeth [V, 5] | Macbeth | 2353 | Hang out our banners on the outward walls; The cry is still ‘They come:’ our castle’s strength Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie Till famine and the ague eat them up: Were they not forced with those that should be ours, We might have met them dareful, beard to beard, And beat them backward home. [A cry of women within] What is that noise? |
| 8 | Merchant of Venice [I, 1] | Salarino | 24 | My wind cooling my broth Would blow me to an ague, when I thought What harm a wind too great at sea might do. |
| 9 | Richard II [II, 1] | King Richard II | 799 | Presuming on an ague‘s privilege, Darest with thy frozen admonition Make pale our cheek, chasing the royal blood With fury from his native residence. Now, by my seat’s right royal majesty, Wert thou not brother to great Edward’s son, This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head Should run thy head from thy unreverent shoulders. |
| 10 | Richard II [III, 2] | King Richard II | 1598 | This ague fit of fear is over-blown; |
| 11 | Tempest [II, 2] | Stephano | 1156 | This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who hath got, as I take it, an ague. |
| 12 | Tempest [II, 2] | Stephano | 1178 | If all the wine in my bottle will recover him, I will help his ague. Come. Amen! I will pour some in thy other mouth. |
| 13 | Tempest [II, 2] | Stephano | 1221 | how does thine ague? |
| 14 | Timon of Athens [IV, 3] | Timon | 1815 | Enough to make a whore forswear her trade, And to make whores, a bawd. Hold up, you sluts, Your aprons mountant: you are not oathable, Although, I know, you ‘ll swear, terribly swear Into strong shudders and to heavenly agues The immortal gods that hear you,—spare your oaths, … |
| 15 | Troilus and Cressida [III, 3] | Patroclus | 2111 | O, then, beware; Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves: Omission to do what is necessary Seals a commission to a blank of danger; And danger, like an ague, subtly taints Even then when we sit idly in the sun. |
| 16 | Venus and Adonis | Shakespeare | 761 | ‘As burning fevers, agues pale and faint, Life-poisoning pestilence and frenzies wood, The marrow-eating sickness, whose attaint Disorder breeds by heating of the blood: Surfeits, imposthumes, grief, and damn’d despair, Swear nature’s death for framing thee so fair. |
Sixteen references in Shakespeare’s plays – Ague was an important factor in people’s lives in Britain in the 1500s.
Ague was a changer of battles, a metaphor for fear or a sign of divine punishment, a disease which caused a burning fever with shaking, pale skin (anaemia) and weight loss, a disease whose worst phases left people bedridden, a disease which was stronger during Spring, when mosquitoes become active: “the sun in March, This praise doth nourish agues“.
Ague was Malaria.
The point is Malaria infection was prevalent enough to be referenced sixteen times by Shakespeare, during the Little Ice Age, during the period frost fairs were held on the River Thames, which froze solid enough in winter for people to walk around on the ice. Malaria is not a tropical disease.
The American CDC also provides evidence that tropical weather is not the main driver of Malaria;
From Shakespeare to Defoe: Malaria in England in the Little Ice Age
Paul Reiter
Author affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, San Juan, Puerto RicoAbstract
Present global temperatures are in a warming phase that began 200 to 300 years ago. Some climate models suggest that human activities may have exacerbated this phase by raising the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Discussions of the potential effects of the weather include predictions that malaria will emerge from the tropics and become established in Europe and North America. The complex ecology and transmission dynamics of the disease, as well as accounts of its early history, refute such predictions. Until the second half of the 20th century, malaria was endemic and widespread in many temperate regions, with major epidemics as far north as the Arctic Circle. From 1564 to the 1730s—the coldest period of the Little Ice Age—malaria was an important cause of illness and death in several parts of England. Transmission began to decline only in the 19th century, when the present warming trend was well under way. The history of the disease in England underscores the role of factors other than temperature in malaria transmission.
…
Read more: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/1/00-0101_article
Why is Malaria, or Ague, re-emerging in Europe?
Nobody knows for sure why Ague went away. Several factors such as widespread draining of swamps and more understanding of how to control mosquitoes helped. Even a shift to smaller households likely contributed.
One factor which could be driving the re-emergence of Ague in Europe and North America is the mass importation of people who are infected with Malaria. I’m not making any comment on the moral rights or wrongs of Europe and the USA’s generous asylum policies, but importing people who carry Malaria, without rigorous vetting and medical management of their condition, is a major public health risk.
The mosquitoes which can carry Malaria are very much still a presence in Europe, Britain and the United States, especially given green efforts over the last few years to eradicate the use of effective pesticides and to preserve or restore wetlands instead of draining the swamp.
Increase in imported malaria in the Netherlands in asylum seekers and VFR travellers
- Brechje de Gier,
- Franciska S. T. Suryapranata,
- Mieke Croughs,
- Perry J. J. van Genderen,
- Monique Keuter,
- Leo G. Visser,
- Michele van Vugt &
- Gerard J. B. Sonder
Malaria Journal volume 16, Article number: 60 (2017) Cite this article
- 3481 Accesses
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- Metrics details
Abstract
Background
Malaria is a notifiable disease in the Netherlands, a non-endemic country. Imported malaria infections occur regularly among travellers, migrants and visitors. Surveillance data were analysed from 2008 to 2015. Trends in amounts of notifications among risk groups were analysed using Poisson regression. For asylum seekers, yearly incidence was calculated per region of origin, using national asylum request statistics as denominator data. For tourists, denominator data were used from travel statistics to estimate incidence per travel region up to 2012.
Results
A modest increase in overall imported malaria notifications occurred in 2008–2015 (from 222 in 2008 to 344 in 2015). Notably, in 2014 and 2015 sharp increases were seen in malaria among travellers visiting friends and relatives (VFR), and in asylum seekers. Of all Plasmodium falciparum infections, most (1254/1337; 93.8%) were imported from Africa; 1037/1337 (77.6%) were imported from Central and West Africa. Malaria in VFR was mostly caused by P. falciparum infection after visiting Ghana (22%) or Nigeria (19%). Malaria in asylum seekers was mostly caused by Plasmodium vivax infection from the Horn of Africa. The large number of notifications in asylum seekers resulted from both an increase in number of asylum seekers and a striking increase of malaria incidence in this group. Incidence of malaria in asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa ranged between 0.02 and 0.3% in 2008–2013, but rose to 1.6% in 2014 and 1.3% in 2015. In 2008–2012, incidence in tourists visiting Central and West Africa dropped markedly.
Conclusions
Imported malaria is on the rise again in the Netherlands, most notably since 2013. This is mostly due to immigration of asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa. The predominance of P. vivax infection among asylum seekers warrants vigilance in health workers when a migrant presents with fever, as relapses of this type of malaria can occur long after arrival in the Netherlands.
Read more: https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12936-017-1711-5
I don’t want to overplay the risk. If a significant Malaria outbreak did occur in a modern country, it could be controlled by stepping up mosquito fogging programmes, mass spraying of pesticides in residential areas, and large scale treatment of known sources of mosquitoes. Centuries of experience dealing with Malaria have taught us how to combat it, simple low cost measures like spraying swamps with kerosene or other chemicals to kill mosquito larvae, and public vigilance and cleanup campaigns to eradicate stagnant water near residential homes, could all contribute to containing an outbreak.
We have a large body of knowledge from past successes, the product of centuries of desperate efforts to combat the scourge. But people who were infected before the outbreak was contained would have a rough time, especially if they were infected with one of the emerging drug resistant strains of Malaria which are increasingly prevalent in poor countries. And it is an open question whether today’s green obsessed politicians would act decisively, and authorise immediate large scale treatment of natural wetlands adjacent to the outbreak, or would dither and delay until mass outrage at the growing number of casualties forced them to act.
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Probably due to unchecked migration of third world into the west to permanently weaken and/or destroy them.
Malaria has been on the increase ever since the DDT bans of 1973.
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She’s never been to Alaska
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Yer not gonna hear ’bout dat on NPR.
The birthrate in North America has declined so much that immigrants are the only thing keeping their populations and economies from declining. They are about the only ones willing to do the dirty and dangerous jobs.
A non sequitur is a conversational literary device, often used for comedic purposes. It is something said that, because of its apparent lack of meaning relative to what preceded it, seems absurd to the point of being humorous or confusing.
Not to mention that it is untrue, aka disinformation.
Malaria was not just a tropical problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Black_Swamp
The spread of Dengue, Malaria, and many other previously suppressed diseases is a predictable consequence of the massive increase in international tourism and migration in the recent decades, and to some extent the limits on use of DDT. There is no reason to think it is due to the tiny increase in global temps in the last two centuries.
The United States and Canada don’t have anything to worry about from malaria since they have been in a temperature downtrend since the 1930’s.
It was just as hot in the 1930’s as it is today, yet there were no malaria outbreaks in the U.S. and Canada back then.
Doctors who try to tie malaria to hot weather/human-caused climate change should have their medical license revoked.
Maybe I’ve overlooked some details, but it seems to me that certain low-lying areas of the US east coast had problems with malaria and yellow fever about two centuries ago. Then the authorities made a concerted effort to drain swamplands adjacent to cities like Philadelphia and much of the problem was solved. At that time those areas were cooler than they are today; yet the insects flourished because of a lack of control, not increasing temperatures.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Black_Swamp
The Great Black Swamp was in the Toledo Ohio area spreading to the southwest.
Also the CDC paper referred to said the following:
“Laboratory studies have shown that tropical strains of P. falciparum do not multiply in European mosquitoes. However, European strains did cause major epidemics in Russia and Poland in the 1920s, with high death rates as far north as Archangel, Russia. In Holland, mosquitoes sheltering in the warmth of stables and human habitations continued to feed and transmit malaria throughout the winter and during colder summers. Thus, the dormancy and delayed onset of P. vivax were probably not essential for transmission, and it is conceivable that P. falciparum was endemic in England during the Little Ice Age. Alternatively, a more virulent strain of vivax may have been present. The question may never be resolved because the strains involved are now extinct.”
Apparently there was a large outbreak in Massachusetts in 1880 (see Cook, C.A. (1889) Massachusetts State Board of Health Public Documents) and many researchers linked the increases to immigration from territories where it was endemic.
Bottom feeders like Horton will continue to print trash like this so long as they are not confronted. We need to get in their face and confront them publicly. You can be nice or not, just get it done.
“We need to get in their face and confront them publicly.”
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Freedom of the press is for those who have access to the press.
Back in the day when the 1st was written, the paper an opinion (or a fact) was written on was not controlled.
In today’s “digital age” ….?
Scraping the bottom of the climate alarm barrel yet again. The malaria climate alarm was first raised in the peer reviewed journal ‘Environmental Health Perspectives’ back in May 1995 (ref is in one of my books—I just went back to the original source for this citation). All models, no observations. It is now 2024, 29 years later. Hasn’t happened. No matter—alarmingly it still might. Or might not.
As Eric points out, malaria is NOT just a tropical disease. Nor is ‘tropical’ Yellow Fever, which decimated Philadelphia the summer of the Constitutional Convention. All you need is summer mosquitos and infected people for females to feed on.
If malaria is rising in temperate regions , it is mainly through imports of infected people to where it had previously been eradicated. No malaria==>less mosquito control==>new infected people==>more malaria from more mosquitoes. Banning DDT did NOT help mosquito control.
😎
If it’s just a rise in temperature, then shouldn’t the base of “The Hockey Sticks” blade have fewer malaria cases in northern regions?
Yet the opposite is true.
Malaria (and other mosquito bourn diseases) was more of a problem in northern areas before “Global Warming”.
What else changed since the wide spread use of fossil fuels?
The bogus Hockey Stick chart has distorted the view of past climates for far too many people, who think today is the hottest day in human history and they attribute all sorts of dire consequences to this illusion.
If it’s the hottest day in human history then they think that must cause all sorts of problems we have never experienced before and the speculation goes off the charts.
The only problem with that line of thinking is today is NOT the hottest time in human history. That is a distortion created deliberately by alarmist climate scientists with an agenda.
The Temperature Data Mannipulators have fooled a LOT of people into believing something that isn’t true.
When people believe things that are not true, it leads to those people making big mistakes like claiming malaria is coming back because it’s the hottest time in human history.
The bogus Hockey Stick chart is the BIG LIE of climate science and it has caused incalculable damage to human society on all fronts.
All caused by a small cabal of Temperature Data Mannipulators intent on lying about the Earth’s climate history.
The demise of DDT as a mosquito control beginning in the 1970s has certainly had a huge impact on the rise of mosquito borne diseases including malaria, dengue, and others. No thanks due to the lies spread by so-called “environmentalists.”
On 4th May 2020, just as Covid-19 was starting, the Victorian Chief Medical Officer, Dr Brett Sutton, and 3 colleagues from the Department of Health published about impacts of climate change on medical services, including a foretaste of greater regulatory activity.
One of the themes was a predicted increase in incidence of Ross River Virus, whose spread by mosquitos resembles that of Malaria.
The paper was objectionable because of the poor standard of its science, part driven by dedication to the Cause of showing global warming as a future fearsome threat. Therefore, I asked Dr Sutton and the journal to retract the paper to allow corrections and improvements. This was met with the now-customary technique of ignoring material that critizes the Cause.
Here is the request for retraction. Geoff S
http://www.geoffstuff.com/sutton.docx
Here are some further suggestions: the climate is collapsing disintegrating foundering cracking-up crashing and conking out, Guardian types love dreaming up new climate hyperbolic dysphemisms.
The most famous “breakdown” is one named Foggy Mountain Breakdown:
Foggy Mtn Breakdown (Must-Own DVD) (youtube.com)
West Nile has spread across North America and if one had to point to a single
reason it would be invasive species. Globalization has been blamed by
some high level medical groups as the main cause, not climate change. Birds
are what moves it around in the spring, crows and jays are considered
species to keep an eye on.
To put things in perspective, the mosquito is the de facto state bird of Alaska. I remember having a layover in Fairbanks on the way to Point Barrow on the 1st of April, 1967. The streams were running, but there was still several inches of snow on the ground, and the mosquitos were already out looking for blood.
The invention of affordable insect screening for windows, insecticides, and former aggressive treatment of stagnant water bodies, are largely responsible for the eradication formerly endemic malaria in the US.
In 2023 Belize, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan were declared free of malaria. Algeria in 2019 and Cape Verde this year.
T.hese countries include some that are warmer than Britain even if there’s a bit of welcome warming in the next couple of decades.
All you need is a warm summer for mosquitoes. As anyone who has visited the countryside of Scotland in August will know. Mosquitoes and midges! The year round and winter climates don’t matter at all.
“it is an open question whether today’s green obsessed politicians would act decisively, and authorise immediate large scale treatment of natural wetlands adjacent to the outbreak, or would dither and delay until mass outrage at the growing number of casualties forced them to act”
They will never act to actually eradicate a problem that can be laid at CO2’s door. Such issues are manna from heaven for the climate lobby.
According to Chandler, Introduction to Parasitology, “….in 1640. a countess returning to Europe from Peru brought with her some bark from a cinchona tree, an infusion of which had been used by the native Indians to cure an attack of malaria from which she suffered….” Bark produced quinine and other alkaloids. Malaria used to be taught in introductory biology both from being so serious and such a complicated life cycle. Yes, it does better with heat, but Chandler remarked about it being so important in world history.
Folks like Shakespeare and nursery rhymes tell of tragedy long past. Such as the line “They all fall down”.
This site went through the malaria/disease discussion years ago so this must be cyclical. With malaria back in news can we now talk of hydroquinone and ivermectin?
Nonsense. Only global average mosquitos are capable of spreading malaria and dengue in more average regions because global warming is an average quantity.
In science, one must strive to keep the units consistent or your argument falls apart.