Lovely

New crippling virus spreading worldwide

Scientists link rise of mosquito-borned Chikungunya to global warming

'WASHINGTON - A new virus called the Chikungunya virus, which causes painful and sometimes crippling symptoms, has spread to several new countries in the past year because it has found a new species of mosquito to carry it, researchers said on Friday.

A single mutation allowed the virus to infect the Asian tiger mosquito — which itself is spreading to many more countries in Europe and North America, the researchers said.

“This mutation increases the potential for Chikungunya virus to permanently extend its range into Europe and the Americas,” Stephen Higgs and colleagues at the University of Texas Medical Branch wrote in their report, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens.

This is especially true if average temperatures continue to rise with global warming, they wrote. The virus caused outbreaks in India and Italy this year.'