Scientists raise concerns as dangerous illness threatens over 1 billion people: 'We may see more frequent outbreaks'

The zoonotic illness causes symptoms including fever and chills, headaches, body aches and muscle pain, and mental changes ranging.

Insect-borne diseases that were once confined to certain geographical areas are spreading, thanks to the continued overheating of our planet. One such disease is scrub typhus, which was recently detected for the first time in the mountainous country of Bhutan, Eco-Business reported.

What is happening?

Scrub typhus is transmitted through the bite of larval mites of the Trombiculidae family, also known as chiggers.

The zoonotic illness causes symptoms including fever and chills, headaches, body aches and muscle pain, and mental changes ranging from confusion to coma, according to the CDC.

While it has historically been restricted to a geographic area in the Asia-Pacific called the “tsutsugamushi triangle,” which has both intense humidity and scrub vegetation, that area is now expanding. Over 1 billion people are at risk of the disease, according to a scientific study from 2018, with that number only rising.

Why is this concerning?

Scrub typhus is not the only vector-borne disease (one that is transmitted to humans by blood-feeding insects) that is on the rise, with its reach spreading due to our overheating planet. Dengue fever, babesiosis, Lyme disease, malaria, and more are all on the rise.

“As meteorological factors play a key role in creating a conducive environment for the chiggers to thrive,” said Tandin Zangpo, a medical epidemiologist at Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences and the co-author of another study on the scrub typhus. “This also means climate change will have significant impacts on scrub typhus outbreaks. If changes in the climate lead to a scenario where the rainfall and the humidity is at a level just ideal for mites to proliferate, we may see more frequent outbreaks.”

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What is being done about it?

Zangpo advocated for a One Health approach to combat scrub typhus and other zoonotic disease outbreaks. Per the World Health Organization, “One Health is an integrated, unifying approach to balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems. It uses the close, interdependent links among these fields to create new surveillance and disease control methods.”

More broadly speaking, we must stop the activities—primarily the use of dirty energy sources like gas and oil—that are causing our planet’s overheating and turn instead to clean, renewable energy sources like wind and solar.