18% of dengue cases in Asia, Americas during 1995-2014 linked to climate change: Study

Rates of dengue cases could be more than double in many cooler locations

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NEW DELHI: A new analysis of dengue cases across 21 countries in Asia and the Americas reveals that 18 per cent of disease incidence during 1995-2014 can be traced to higher temperatures resulting from climate change.

The 18 per cent translates into more than 4.6 million extra infections per year on average, researchers from Stanford and Harvard universities in the US said.

Under continued global warming, the cases of the mosquito-borne infectious disease could climb another 50-76 per cent by 2050, depending on how trends in greenhouse gas emissions play out, findings published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggest.