Giving Compass' Take:

• The Guardian reports on new scientific research which warns of danger from dengue fever and other tropical insect-borne diseases in hotter, wetter climate in northern latitudes in Europe, citing climate change as a cause. 

• How is the government in Europe prepared to take on new diseases? How can nonprofits and other aid organizations lend a hand in this field?

• Here's another article showing how rising temperatures help spread insect-borne diseases. 

Insect-borne diseases such as dengue fever, leishmaniasis and encephalitis are on the rise and are now threatening to spread into many areas of Europe, scientists have warned.

Outbreaks of these illnesses are increasing because of climate change and the expansion of international travel and trade, the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases was told in Amsterdam on Saturday.

Even previously unaffected areas in higher latitudes and altitudes, including some parts of northern Europe, are at risk of outbreaks unless action is taken to improve surveillance and data sharing, the researchers said.

“Climate change is not the only, or even the main, factor driving the increase in vector-borne diseases across Europe, but it is one of many factors alongside globalisation, socioeconomic development, urbanisation and widespread changes to land use which need to be addressed to limit the importation and spread,” said the lead author Professor Jan Semenza, of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Stockholm.

Read the full article on tropical insect-borne diseases spreading in Europe by Robin McKie at The Guardian.