The Environment Ministry will set up a special advisory panel to look into diseases that may become epidemics in the near future as temperatures rise in Japan due to global warming, according to ministry officials.
Panel members, including specialists from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and National Institute for Environmental Studies, will gather information on the potential effects of global warming on infectious diseases and pursue countermeasures.
According to the World Health Organization, temperate areas in Japan may face dengue and West Nile fever epidemics as viruses become active from increasing temperatures. The number of mosquitoes that carry the diseases is thought to rise as well.
The panel will hold its first meeting later this month and compile a proposal in February on topics that include measures to prevent the proliferation of mosquitoes able to transmit diseases and to encourage people to always wash their hands and sanitize.
Dengue fever affects more than 100 million people annually in tropical and subtropical regions in Asia and Latin America, resulting in high death rates if left untreated.
West Nile fever was once thought endemic only to Africa, but numerous cases in North America and Europe have been reported since 1990, and the virus is showing signs of spreading farther.
A man from Kawasaki who had returned from the U.S. became the first person diagnosed with the disease in Japan. Symptoms of West Nile virus include sudden high fever, headaches and loss of appetite in about 20 percent of infected people.
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