Climate Change and Culicidae Vectors - a Systematic Review of the Evolution on Southern European Countries

Culicidae vectors are insects that have the ability to transmit several diseases such as malaria, zika or dengue. The development of these vectors is mainly influenced by temperature, relative humidity and precipitation of their environment. Therefore, climate change can increase the geographical distribution of diseases transferred by these vectors. The predominant goals of this review is to identify the primary Culicidae vectors in Southern European countries, understand how climate change can influence the geographical distribution of these vectors as well as their impact on the health of the population of the affected areas. The bibliographical research started on the 1st of October 2019 and ended on the 20th of April 2020 and was carried out resorting to data bases suchlike Google Schoolar, Web of Science, BioMed Central and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Whilst writing this review 23 original scientific articles, 1 master’s degree dissertation and 10 scientific reports were consulted, mainly in English and in Portuguese. After having analysed the 32 selected articles, we concluded the primary environmental alterations will most likely be the increase of the global temperature, decrease of precipitation, and decrease of the relative humidity’s percentage on Southern European countries. We gathered that this vectors will continue to have ideal conditions to thrive in the countries mentioned above and that no country in Southern Europe will have an adequate climate to the development of vectors pertaining to the genus Aedes which can lead to the disappearance of these species of vectors.