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Like HIV and hepatitis, tropical diseases are threatening blood supplies

For the first time, tropical diseases like West Nile fever, dengue fever and malaria are threatening Europe's supply of donated blood. It's a problem, ClimateWire reports, that's gaining in prominence as temperatures rise.

While about 1,000 cases of these diseases are brought north each year by human carriers, it wasn't until the past few years that cases began originating locally. In 2010, a man in southern France contracted dengue fever. The man hadn't traveled, meaning he must have been bitted by an Asian tiger mosquito, which carries the disease. By 2012, the mosquito had been spotted in 20 European countries. According to ClimateWire, that's because climate conditions have become more favorable to it and other carriers of tropical diseases. Once they're in the blood supply, they can be difficult to detect:

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