Climate change triggers new diseases in Vietnam
Scientists have found connections between climate change and the appearance of new diseases, especially vector borne diseases, including dengue fever and malaria. Vietnam is among five countries in the world to suffer the most from climate change. According to the Central Steering Committee on Fighting and Preventing Calamities, the spell of cold weather which lasted from January 22 to January 28, 2016 in the north killed nearly 9,500 cattle and damaged 9,453 hectares of rice fields. During the cold spell, snow not only appeared in mountainous areas near the border line, but also in Hanoi and Nghe An province, the thing which never happened in the past. Scientists pointed out that the changes in weather and climate will have serious impact on the vector population and therefore lead to an outbreak of vector-borne diseases. Vector-borne diseases are infections transmitted by the bites of infected arthropod species, such as mosquitoes, ticks, triatomine bugs, sandflies, and blackflies.
