Portugal is not a tropical malarian country - clarification

Ok, sorry once again ladies and gents for not being completely accurate, but again, those recent malaria cases were imported.
I am pretty sure that that happens in any country with ties to tropical zones. People travel more and more. Planes present an increased risk of carrying infections and bugs.
It does happen that Portugal has centuries old ties with Africa. From Lisbon's airport there are regular flights to many African countries, to Florida, to 10 different cities in Brazil, to Venezuela, plus charters to the Caribbean. People infected may come here as they may go elsewhere, hence the detected cases.

I did not know that there had been malaria here. My mistake, sorry. At least I triggered an interesting debate. I read somewhere that the vector mosquito exists in marshlands by the river Sado and the Guadiana River, to the south and east of Lisbon, and yes, I've been to towns by the Sado river in the summer and there are plenty of mosquitos, because there's heat and fresh water. Apparently it's the malaria germ that does not exist in the (female?) mosquito, or at least the tropical kind of.

Again, the long term fear is that, with global warming and climate change, many temperate zones including Portugal will again have malaria or other tropics associated deseases. Long term means the next 50 or 100 years?Other countries? Many you wouldn't think of. A hot summer in Finland, Russia or Sweden may pose risks? There are plenty of mosquitos there, plenty of fresh water pools and warmth induced by greenhouse gases is exactly what mosquitos love. What about Canada and the US mid-west? humid Germany or Netherlands in a heatwave summer? New Zealand's cold turn warm South Island? Tasmania? subpolar Tierra del Fuego?

Thanks Nutrax for the clarification.

At least I triggered an interesting debate.

Yes joaop, i do think it is an interesting and eventually worrying subject.
Imported cases of malaria (from people who have been infected abroad) occur everywhere.
In Belgium where i live there has been malaria until 1938. Global warming could certainly have its consequences. Several species of mainly insects and birds have been detected to be moving north already.
The (very limited) malaria risk in Greece (see article above) which i think is relatively recent proofs that vigilance is needed, and that we can't automatically assume that malaria will remain eradicated in (southern) Europe forever.

On a side note, i will not worry at all when travelling to Greece ;-)
According to the reputable Institute of Tropical Medicine in my hometown the risk is extremely local and very limited:
Very limited malaria risk (P. vivax only) may exist from May to October in villages of the Evrotas delta area in the Lakonia district (an area of 20 square km) in agricultural area with large migrant populations. There is no risk in tourist areas.
http://www.itg.be/itg/GeneralSite/Default.aspx?L=E&WPID=136&miid=333

In the outbreak of malaria that has occurred last year or so in Greece, about a third of the cases were Pakistani farmworkers in a couple of rural areas. For some of the workers, it could not be determined if they acquired the malaria in Pakistan or Greece. Other cases were clearly locally-acquired or clearly imported. The US CDC reported on Jan. 113
>Cases of malaria continue to be reported in Greece. Some new cases have occurred in areas of Greece where malaria had not been previously reported. Cases of malaria have been reported from the Attica, Karditsa, Laconia, Viotia, and Xanthi regions of Greece. Cases have occurred in the cities of Evrotas, Marathon, Markopoulo, and Selino. No cases have been reported in Athens. The Hellenic (Greek) CDC and the European CDC are improving surveillance for malaria cases. In affected areas, mosquito control has been intensified, health care providers have been educated, and the public has been informed.

The kind of malaria in this outbreak is not going to be a problem in winter, but there will probably be additional cases when weather warms up.

Let's all just give thanks for the effectiveness of DDT decades ago, which eradicated the mosquitoes carrying those diseases in the various zones mentioned above (because today DDT is not tolerated).

On a related note, today in poverty stricken countries there are millions of avoidable deaths that are related to malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, etc, that ARE tolerated... as long as it means DDT remains banned.

Amokinsa, DDT contributed to erradicate malaria in many places: USA, Italy, etc. If that on the other hand caused an ecological disaster, contaminated fresh water and soils and caused cancer to many people, we should see the balance of that: were there more deaths caused by malaria or more deaths caused by DDT? Besides there were cases of germs being resistant to DDT.

As far as I am aware, there are things that can be done without using DDT and using little money. Putting leads in all the tanks with fresh stagnated water is one of them. Even roofing canals and dams. Dams are man-made. In tropical countries, they present a risk because of all the fresh water there. The ecological change is already done with the consttruction of the dam, so why not closing it with a roof?

Using air conditioning and electrocuters of insects involves having extensive electric supply to homes. Air conditioning is expensive but using those electric plug ins maybe does not spend so much electricity, probably can be done with a battery and a solar pannel and are effective.

Again back to Europe. The risk being in marshlands by rivers, not on seaside beaches with plenty of salt water and salt spray. Again the summer is DRY, so mosquitos only exist by river banks and swamps.
The winter can be above freezing in many coastal areas of Southern Europe, but it freezes and snows in the mountains, plateaus, inland areas and sometimes on the coast. It's likely in Greece to fall snow in the winter, much more often than in Portugal due to its easterly continental location. Those deseases really hate the winter.

Mredman: climates have a lot to do with that. You're right if it's not the only reason, but you're wrong if there's nothing to do with that.
When I hear Americans coming to Lisbon in November, and complaining about rain, thinking it's unseasonly (????), It comes to mind that they think that Portugal is a tropical country with a dry season sarting in November (???), and a wet season in the summer? It is not!

OK - enough again. Mod I think we can close this one!!

In the case of this thread i would leave that honour to the OP orion_mike.