Global warming increases malaria danger

Worldwide global warming is increasing the need for new malaria vaccines, according to an expert.

Dr Sylvain Fleury, chief scientific officer at Swiss biotechnology firm Mymetics, said that nations in Europe, North America and north Asia have currently been "immune from the malaria threat".

Recent studies have identified that even small increases in temperature could increase the prevalence of malaria-carrying mosquitoes across the world, with billions of people possibly living in regions of "high malaria incidence" in the future.

Dr Fleury said: "The best way to prevent the spread of malaria into warming areas of the globe is to find a solution before the situation worsens.

"If we can begin to curb the spread of malaria in high threat areas, the eventual reach of the disease will be seriously limited."

The World Health Organisation estimates that 40 per cent of the world's population are currently at risk of malaria infection, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.