A keen soccer player, snowboarder and mountain biker, Wood said he didn't know the cause but he had to"back off from playing sports and back off from academics."
Populations of exotic mosquito species that could potentially carry illnesses such as dengue and yellow fever have become established in parts of Ontario, researchers say. Scientists also worry that climate change will increase the risks of microbial disease associated with food contamination and warm weather.
Wood said the number of detections of Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, had recently been increasing in his lab by about 0.5 to 1 per cent a year. "This occurred in part due to changes in climate, which has contributed to increases in the abundance and geographic range of black-legged tick populations in central and Eastern Canada," the report says, adding that only about 1 per cent of Lyme disease cases in Canada were contracted outside the country.
Ng noted that in Windsor, Ontario, where she lives, there was now a population"in small numbers" of Aedes albopictus, known as tiger mosquitoes and native to the tropics and subtropics of Asia. She said it was an example of a mosquito population,"particularly those that carry exotic viruses," having"the potential to continue to stay established, but also expand geographically because the climate is getting warmer."
It would take"dramatic changes" for dengue fever to become a concern to Canadians, he said, adding that it was not"a current concern" but"a few decades away." "The growth, survival, abundance and range of pathogens will be affected by climate change throughout the food chain," it said. “Climate change can be expected to facilitate the presence of these tick-borne diseases,” read the report.