World's deadliest diseases are coming to the UK because of climate change (?): Mosquitos and ticks carrying viruses with death rates of up to 50% will make Britain home, experts warn MPs
Experts say Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever is now likely to arrive in the UK
A deadly disease that kills up to half of everyone it infects is on its way to the UK because of climate change, leading experts claim.
Zika and 'breakbone' fever will also eventually spread on British soil, they warned.
Scientists told MPs today the diseases, which are transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks, are bound for Britain as rising temperatures extend their range.
One of their biggest concerns is Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) — a disease with a death rate of almost 40 per cent. Rift Valley fever, another possible threat, can be even deadlier, figures suggest.
Initial infections might go unnoticed because NHS medics aren't familiar with the formally foreign pathogens, MPs also heard.
The World Health Organization (WHO), which lists CCHF as one of its nine 'priority diseases', says it has already reached France.
A number of diseases carried by mosquitoes and ticks could be on their way to Britain thanks to warming temperatures experts have warned with Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) already reaching France according to tracking by the World Health Organization
Professor James Wood, head of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University, told MPs on the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee it was 'highly likely' CCHF would reach the UK in the future.
'Some tick-borne infections, so Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, are highly likely to spread in the UK through our ticks at some point,' he said.
He also said Rift Valley Fever (RVF), a virus carried by mosquitoes, which can kill up to half of patients who catch a severe form of the disease, is another pathogen likely on its way.
'There are other infections that could be mosquito-borne such as Rift Valley Fever which could be the next thing to arrive,' he said.
And he warned that such pathogens may initially slip under the radar, as NHS medics aren't trained to spot these diseases.
Professor Wood was among numerous experts asked by MPs about what factors could contribute to new diseases emerging in the UK.
Professor Bryan Charleston, director of the Pirbright Institute, which studies infectious diseases in animals, was another questioned by MPs and said there was a 'slow march north' of insects which could convey diseases to the UK.
He added this could see numerous dangerous pathogens become effectively native in Britain.
'Arthropod-borne viruses such as dengue virus, zika virus, there's potential for those viruses to become established in the UK,' he said.
Professor Sir Peter Horby, director of the Pandemic Sciences Institute at Oxford University, said climate change was rewriting the borders of where disease could be found.
'Dengue which is classically a South American, South East Asian disease and is hyperendemic in those countries [has] spread North, you're now seeing transmission in the Mediterranean,' he said.
CCHF, RVF and zika have all been named by the WHO as having the potential to spark a pandemic in the future.
People primarily catch CCHF from infected ticks, but it can also spread between people through bodily fluids.
The disease shares similar symptoms to Ebola at the start of infection including muscle aches, abdominal pain, a sore throat and vomiting.
It can also trigger bleeds, usually from the nose or from broken capillaries on the eyes and skin.
Other symptoms of the virus, which come on suddenly, include fever, dizziness, neck pain and stiffness, backache, headache, sore eyes and sensitivity to light.
CCHF, a tick-borne virus, has a mortality rate of up to 40 per cent according to the World Health Organization and causes symptoms similar to Ebola.