Climate change is also changing the geography of diseases. A document earlier this year warned that there could be a “potentially devastating” jump in the number of new pathogens jumping among mammals over the next 50 years. He predicts a “minimum of 15,000” new overflow events by 2070 if temperatures rise by 2 ° C.
“The beginning of the 21st century was a perfect storm for emerging infectious diseases, and everything points to the possibility of more and more outbreaks,” said Professor Woolhouse. “All outbreak engines are deteriorating, not improving over time.
Some experts say the number of new diseases that have affected the UK over the past six months may also be linked to a pandemic break, easing restrictions and shifting migration patterns from post-Brexit Europe.
Since leaving the European Union, immigration outside the EU has grown, with many more coming from Asia and Africa.
“People who go from this country to other countries and back are probably the biggest driver of disease imports,” said Professor Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia.
“The United Kingdom is also one of the world’s leading transport hubs,” added Dr. Richard Hatchet, CEO of Cepi (Innovation Preparedness Coalition). “And we’ve recently seen a jump in global transport after two years of relative inaction, which allows infections to spread quickly.
In February, a baby died of Lhasa fever at a hospital in Bedfordshire, one of three people infected with the hemorrhagic virus while in West Africa. A month later, a woman with a recent history of traveling to Asia was diagnosed with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a related tick-borne virus, with a mortality rate of 40 percent.
The rapid spread of monkeypox worldwide – about 3,700 confirmed and suspected cases have already been reported outside endemic countries – is also linked to travel.
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