"Climate Change, Crime and Political Chaos: A Deadly Mix in Honduras Dengue Epidemic"
Date - Dec. 29, 2019 By Kirk Semple Source - Link While rising temperatures are increasing the range of disease-bearing mosquitoes globally, the effects are compounded in Honduras by government dysfunction and criminal gangs. Children being treated for dengue fever at a hospital in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Credit... Daniele Volpe for The New York Times CHOLOMA, Honduras — More than 400 people died this year as one of the worst dengue epidemics on record swept through Central America — a type of outbreak that some scientists and public health officials are warning is likely to become more frequent and more widespread because of climate change . But while climate change is threatening to increase the spread of dengue worldwide by expanding the range of the mosquitoes that carry the virus, the disease has already found an especially fertile breeding ground in Honduras, for reasons that go beyond the environment. In Honduras, which accounted fo...