Parasites May Get Nastier with Climate Swings

Recently we've seen an uptick in malaria infections in Texas and other southern states as mosquito populations infected with the disease move north due to climate change. Now this comes in from Scientific American. It seems that mosquitoes are not the only problem we'll face as climates shift. Fungi, tapeworms, insects and all the rest of the parasitic world might soon be getting more difficult to deal with.

"Increases in climate variability are likely to make it easier for parasites to infect their hosts," Thomas Raffel of Oakland University in the United States told Reuters, based on findings about frogs and a sometimes deadly skin fungus. "We think this could exacerbate the effects of some disease," he said of the report he led with colleagues at the University of South Florida.

The article goes into more depth.