malaria

Health researchers in Laos are working to identify which mosquito species are present along the country's porous borders, whether those insects carry mutations conferring resistance to the insecticides used against them, and where climate change might spread them next. The concern is a vector community that is more diverse and more genetically varied, making malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases harder to control in the region.

Health experts are sounding the alarm over mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue, malaria and chikungunya, warning that warming temperatures are expanding the habitats of disease-carrying mosquitoes into new regions. Longer breeding seasons and heavier rainfall are boosting mosquito populations, pushing public health agencies to reassess surveillance, prevention and vaccine strategies as outbreaks occur in areas once considered too cold for transmission.