Europe is increasingly grappling with illness and deaths from extreme weather and the arrival of tropical diseases, but it has no plan to prevent and cope with rising climate-related health problems, experts have warned.
Scientists fear mosquito-borne diseases dengue and chikungunya that were once confined to tropical regions could become endemic in Europe due to the northward spread of tiger mosquitoes, which have made it as far as Brussels and 20 other towns in Belgium.
Meanwhile, heat-related deaths are projected to increase threefold by the end of the century, while deaths caused by extreme events including floods and wild fires are rising.
With temperatures in Europe rising faster than anywhere else and no rapid wind down of lethal burning of fossil fuels in sight, public health leaders are trying to push the crisis to the top of the policy agenda.
