El Niño and its climate changes increase diseases in Latin America

The article explores how the El Niño climate phenomenon affects the spread of infectious diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean. The warming of Pacific waters during El Niño causes changes in rainfall and temperature patterns in the region, which influences the incidence of vector-borne diseases such as rodents and mosquitoes. One example is polycystic echinococcosis, where hunting of infected animals increases during El Niño, which can lead to the spread of the disease. In addition, El Niño can also trigger flooding and increase water-related diseases, as well as the transmission of diseases such as dengue fever due to an increase in mosquitoes. These health impacts vary by region and local conditions. Image of Cuniculus paca, one of the species commonly infected by the Echinococcus vogeli worm and whose hunting can spread the disease to humans. Image credit: Marcos Antonio Vieira de Freitas/Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons license (CC BY-SA 4.0).