The Connection between Climate Change and the Zika Virus

We have all heard about the scary disease, Zika virus, which is sweeping its way north from South America, and causing birth defects.  We have also heard that early last week, Dallas County confirmed two cases of Zika virus, and that it can be transmitted sexually.  What we have not heard, and what most people are not talking about, is the fact that global warming creates conditions for the spread of such mosquito-borne diseases as Zika Virus.

First, let me give you information about this most recent outbreak. This particular outbreak of the virus began in Brazil in 2015 and has spread among South American countries. At this time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is monitoring the cases of Zika virus in the Americas in conjunction with the World Health Organization (WHO), which has put the Zika virus outbreak on “public health emergency of international concern” status.

Now, let me give you a little background on the virus itself. The Zika virus was first identified in the Zika Forest in Uganda in 1947 as part of a study to identify viruses that were carried by mosquitos. Researchers in the study discovered a monkey that had contracted an unrecorded virus, what we now know as Zika. The mosquitos that spread Zika and other diseases, called aedes aegypti, originated in Africa and have migrated globally since.

A warming planet creates an environment more conducive to the spread of infectious diseases.  In fact, scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change already predicted years ago that a warming planet would cause the movement of infectious and tropical diseases. A warmer environment can cause pathogens to become more virulent and spark the development of entirely new strains, significantly increasing the risk of contracting a disease. The spread of infectious diseases like Lyme disease, Zika virus, West Nile Virus, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, carried by insects such as ticks and mosquitos, are on the rise due to more favorable breeding and migration conditions as a result of climate change.

With the spread of this particular virus, Zika, and its complications with microcephaly, a serious birth defect, we must do all that we can to contain the spread and also recognize the challenges we face with global warming. Right now, the National Institutes of Health is partnering with industry and organizations around the globe to do more research on the Zika virus and to find a treatment or viable vaccine.

Each month the scientific evidence on climate change grows and it is confirming what the majority of climate scientists have been saying for some time. The Earth is warming, and its consequences are mammoth and unpredictable. The spread of Zika virus is one of those consequences.

Last week, I joined a coalition of my colleagues in Congress urging President Obama to take additional steps in the fight against Zika with research, treatment, and prevention. I urge my constituents to stay informed on prevention, transmission, travel notices, and cases of Zika virus at http://www.cdc.gov/zika/.

Throughout my tenure in Congress, I have called for a serious legislative approach to recognize and combat global warming.  With increasingly serious and unpredictable consequences of global warming such as Zika virus, denying global warming is not only careless, it is dangerous.  We need a new political climate to ensure that we can responsibly discuss the climate of our world.