In a global world, significant factors affect the spread of infectious diseases, including international trade, air travel and globalized food production. "Airport malaria" is a term coined by researchers to explain the more recent spread of malaria to areas such as the United States and Europe, which some scientists credit to warmer climate changes.
Airport malaria is transmitted when a mosquito infected with the disease bites a human within the vicinity (usually one mile or less) of an international airport. Warmer climate changes in major U.S. cities with a large presence of international air traffic, such as New York and Los Angeles, seem to have created a more welcoming environment where these infected mosquitoes can survive. It begins with a mosquito that is transported during an international flight from a malaria-endemic region. Once the infected female mosquito leaves the aircraft, it can survive long enough to seek blood meals and transmit the disease to other humans within the airport. This type of international transmission creates an increased possibility for the reintroduction of not just malaria, but other detrimental diseases such as dengue and Chikungunya fever, into areas where they are not normally found. For example, people infected with malaria can travel anywhere in the world in 24 hours or less and as long as the malaria-transmitting mosquitoes are present, countries can face larger local outbreaks of imported malaria.
"As international travel increases and climate patterns change – particularly warming nighttime temperatures and increased precipitation -- the U.S. becomes a more stable ecosystem for these disease carrying insects to survive and flourish for longer periods of time," says James H. Diaz, M.D., member of the ASTMH and program director for Environmental and Occupational Health at Louisiana State University.