Strange Sounds – July 1, 2021
Experts have warned that the current Earth changes and land-use changes could be creating a conducive environment for flesh-eating leishmania parasites to infect more people in the US.
Numerous studies by climate researchers across the world have already highlighted the increasing risk of insect and pest-borne tropical diseases spreading to temperate and colder parts of the world like Europe and parts of the US with rising global temperatures.
Surge of flesh-eating parasites
As the climate crisis continues, scientists say tropical parasites, such as the one that causes leishmaniasis, may gain more favourable habitats, expanding access to immunologically naive hosts, and may even develop longer and more intense transmission seasons.
The leishmania parasites are transmitted to humans through the bite of sand flies, which themselves are infected by mammals like rodents when the insects feed on their blood.
The parasitic disease leishmaniasis, characterised by crater-like ulcers with a thick, yellowish pus coat, was well-known to be a tropical infection, affecting people in countries such as Brazil, Mexico and India, but now experts say it is endemic to US states like Texas and Oklahoma, with the potential to extend to Canada in the future.
While the predominantly infectious species of the parasite in the US, Leishmania mexicana, causes milder symptoms that can heal on its own, scientists say there are also strains that can be life threatening.