Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of of climate change on instances of malaria in the United Kingdom.

Malaria is not currently transmitted in the United Kingdom, but travel-associated cases occur in those who have returned to, or arrived in, the UK from malaria-endemic areas.

Modelling has investigated the impact of different climate change scenarios on the likelihood for plasmodium falciparum transmission in the UK. Four of the five models suggested a low risk by the year 2100, even at extreme scenarios, with the fifth model predicting suitability in southern England for sustained transmission lasting more than one month by 2080.

With climate change, theoretically a warmer summer would reduce the extrinsic incubation of the pathogen in mosquitos and increase the local malaria risk.