DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Since the United Arab Emirates witnessed its heaviest rain ever recorded Three months ago, the desert nation issued a series of warnings about dengue fever, which activists say has increased and hit the vast working population harder.
The tropical disease, transmitted by mosquitoes, has increased worldwide. The World Health Organization declared an emergency in December, as cases increased globally ten times compared to the last generation.
Many people infected with the virus are asymptomatic, but some experience headaches, fever and flu-like symptoms. Severe cases can cause severe bleeding, shock and death.
In the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven sheikhdoms, the disease often spreads due to travel on long-distance carriers into the country. However, on April 25, the Department of Health warned that locally transmitted cases with no travel history have been documented since 2023 “as a result of climate change and an environment conducive to mosquito breeding.”
Changing weather patterns transform countries previously inhospitable to dengue-carrying mosquitoes into potential habitats.
April’s deluges, which flooded parts of major highways and Dubai’s international airport, only increased the risk in the Gulf country. While the main roads quickly reached the vacuum pumps, others remained overloaded for weeks with pools of stagnant water, where virus-carrying mosquitoes lay their eggs and spread the disease.
No official figures have been released in the Emirates, where sweeping laws severely restrict freedom of expression and almost all major local media outlets are state-owned or state-affiliated outlets. Queries sent to various government organizations regarding the exact number of confirmed dengue cases went unanswered.
The WHO also declined to discuss the situation in the United Arab Emirates when contacted by The Associated Press. However, the UN health agency noted in its May 30 report that there have been ongoing dengue outbreaks in the Middle East, “countries with stronger health systems that have been affected by unusual rainfall due to climate change.” He further stated: “Timely data sharing also remains a challenge for other countries in the region for reasons such as the potential impact on tourism, the economy and other sectors.”
Meanwhile, public awareness campaigns across the sheikhdom about the importance of cleaning stagnant water and warnings about dengue fever, also known as breakbone fever, were widely broadcast in state media.
Still, activists stressed that working communities are bearing the brunt of the disease.
The slow cleanup of flooded areas at industrial sites has worsened the spread of the disease among workers, some of whom have left their home countries already affected by climate change in search of an opportunity to earn money in the UAE, according to a report issued by FairSquare, a London-based group focused on labor rights in the Gulf Arab states.
The July 4 report detailed a rise in dengue cases among migrant worker communities in the Emirates, citing three healthcare workers, a government official and migrant workers. The group attributed the rise in cases to a slow government response to the spread of the viral infection in areas where migrant workers live and work.
James Lynch, a co-director of FairSquare who was previously banned from entering the United Arab Emirates while working at Amnesty International, told the AP that “the important thing here is the disproportionate impact” of how the virus appears to be spreading particularly among workers. “What you would like to see is an impartial approach to dealing with cleanup and that doesn’t seem to be the case here.”
No specific figures were released in the report which quoted a nurse, who works at a private clinic in the city of Sharjah, as saying that she receives more than 30 cases every four or five days, describing the increase in cases as “alarming”.
The UAE’s total population of more than 9.2 million is only 10% Emirati, with millions of low-paid workers drawn from Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
“I call it a double whammy of climate change on this very vulnerable population,” said Barrak Alahmad, a researcher at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. “I see that these migrant workers are on the front lines facing the effects of climate change and health.”
The effect of the virus also had repercussions on Iran.
The Islamic Republic depends on Dubai as an important transit point to the rest of the world due to international sanctions it faces over its nuclear program and tensions with the West.
On July 9, Iranian Health Ministry official Shahnam Arshi said that of the 149 people infected with dengue, 130 had been infected in the UAE, while Hossein Farshidi, deputy health minister, said the first known infected person entered Iran on May 15, after the floods. in the Emirates.
Farshidi, in his latest statements on July 23, said that the number of infected people in the country had risen to 152, without giving further details.
This year, Iran also reported its first locally transmitted dengue cases, saying the number rose to 12 in July, all located in the port of Bandar Lengeh in southern Iran.
Earlier this year, Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro declared a public health emergency y because of mosquito-borne dengue fever, while in July US authorities warned doctors to stay alert as the tropical disease broke international records.
“Each year, we will see new places and different local governments fighting dengue fever or other problems arising from climate change,” said Alahmad, a researcher. “It’s an ever-expanding issue. I don’t know if we have an easy solution to this.”
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Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
