Malaria in Greece: Historical and current reflections on a re-emerging vector borne disease

Danis, Kostas; Lenglet, Annick; Tseroni, Maria; Baka, A; Tsiodras, Sotirios; Bonovas, Stefanos

doi:10.1016/j.tmaid.2013.01.001

Cited by 62 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…A cross-national review suggested that economic crises worsen infectious disease outcomes, resulting from higher rates of infectious contact under poorer living circumstances, reduced access to therapy, and/or poorer retention in treatment. 34 During the last 3 years, for example, Greece has experienced a greater burden of certain large-scale epidemics: increased mortality from influenza during the pandemic and first post-pandemic seasons; 35 emergence of West Nile virus; 36 appearance of clusters of non-imported malaria; 37 and an outbreak of HIV cases among injecting drug users, which rose dramatically in 2011-2012. 38 Informal payments -charges for services or supplies that are supposed to be free -are common in parts of the world, mainly in developing and transition countries.…”

Section: Recession and Health In Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Health protection in times of economic crisis: Challenges and opportunities for Europe

McDaid

Quaglio

Campos

et al. 2013

J Public Health Pol

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STOA, the European Parliament's technology assessment body, and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies recently organised a workshop on the impacts of the economic crisis on European health systems. Evidence of the impact of the recent financial crisis on health outcomes is only just beginning to emerge. Data suggests that this latest recession has led to more frequent poor health status, rising incidence of some communicable diseases, and higher suicide rates. Further, available data are likely to underestimate the broader mental health crisis linked to increased rates of stress, anxiety, and depression among the economically vulnerable. Not only does recession affect factors that determine health, but it also affects the financial capacity to respond. Many European governments have reduced public expenditure on health services during the financial crisis, while introducing or increasing user charges. The recession has driven structural reforms, and has affected the priority given to public policies that could be used to help protect population health. The current economic climate, while challenging, presents an opportunity for reforming and restructuring health promotion actions and taking a long-term perspective.

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Section: Recession and Health In Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Health protection in times of economic crisis: Challenges and opportunities for Europe

McDaid

Quaglio

Campos

et al. 2013

J Public Health Pol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In fact, economic development has trumped climate in determining the global malaria distribution, reducing malaria transmission in developed nations even as temperatures have become more permissive 15 . Meanwhile, malaria resurged in Greece after health services had been cut following the 2008 recession (though some have blamed a warming climate as well) 16 . In developing nations with limited vector control and healthcare infrastructure, climate can still hold sway.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The rise and fall of infectious disease in a warmer world

Lafferty

Mordecai

2016

F1000Res

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Now-outdated estimates proposed that climate change should have increased the number of people at risk of malaria, yet malaria and several other infectious diseases have declined. Although some diseases have increased as the climate has warmed, evidence for widespread climate-driven disease expansion has not materialized, despite increased research attention. Biological responses to warming depend on the non-linear relationships between physiological performance and temperature, called the thermal response curve. This leads performance to rise and fall with temperature. Under climate change, host species and their associated parasites face extinction if they cannot either thermoregulate or adapt by shifting phenology or geographic range. Climate change might also affect disease transmission through increases or decreases in host susceptibility and infective stage (and vector) production, longevity, and pathology. Many other factors drive disease transmission, especially economics, and some change in time along with temperature, making it hard to distinguish whether temperature drives disease or just correlates with disease drivers. Although it is difficult to predict how climate change will affect infectious disease, an ecological approach can help meet the challenge.

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“…Other European countries managed to eradicate autochthonous malaria not long after the Second World War [2,3], such as Germany in 1950, Holland in 1961, Italy in 1970, and Portugal and Greece in 1973 [4]. More recently, the WHO has reported cases of malaria in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkey [5], and there have been sporadic locally acquired cases in Mediterranean European countries like France, Italy, Greece [5] and Spain [6]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Historical Distribution of Main Malaria Foci in Spain as Related to Water Bodies

Sousa

García-Barrón

Vetter

et al. 2014

IJERPH

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The possible connectivity between the spatial distribution of water bodies suitable for vectors of malaria and endemic malaria foci in Southern Europe is still not well known. Spain was one of the last countries in Western Europe to be declared free of malaria by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1964. This study combines, by means of a spatial-temporal analysis, the historical data of patients and deceased with the distribution of water bodies where the disease-transmitting mosquitos proliferate. Therefore, data from historical archives with a Geographic Information System (GIS), using the Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) interpolation method, was analyzed with the aim of identifying regional differences in the distribution of malaria in Spain. The reasons, why the risk of transmission is concentrated in specific regions, are related to worse socioeconomic conditions (Extremadura), the presence of another vector (Anopheles labranchiae) besides A. atroparvus (Levante) or large areas of water bodies in conditions to reproduce theses vectors (La Mancha and Western Andalusia). In the particular case of Western Andalusia, in 1913, the relatively high percentage of 4.73% of the surface, equal to 202362 ha, corresponds to wetlands and other unhealthy water bodies. These wetlands have been reduced as a result of desiccation policies and climate change such as the Little Ice Age and Global Climate Change. The comprehension of the main factors of these wetland changes in the past can help us interpret accurately the future risk of malaria re-emergence in temperate latitudes, since it reveals the crucial role of unhealthy water bodies on the distribution, endemicity and eradication of malaria in southern Europe.

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Malaria in Greece: Historical and current reflections on a re-emerging vector borne disease

Cited by 62 publications

References 28 publications

Health protection in times of economic crisis: Challenges and opportunities for Europe

Health protection in times of economic crisis: Challenges and opportunities for Europe

The rise and fall of infectious disease in a warmer world

The Historical Distribution of Main Malaria Foci in Spain as Related to Water Bodies

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