Katrina: Hi there! Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Babbel News – English Only, a podcast designed to help you improve your English with news content sourced directly from Reuters.

My name is Katrina, and I’ll be filling in for Ted today as the host of today’s show!

I’ll briefly introduce the news story before going over some of the key vocabulary to listen out for. You can find a transcript for the episode by following the link in the episode description.

Today’s story looks at how climate change is causing dengue fever, a viral disease spread by mosquitoes, to become more and more common in new regions across the world.

Before we listen to today’s clip, let’s have a look at some of the important vocabulary. First off, a “scourge” is something that causes great suffering or a lot of trouble. Then we have “to estimate”, which is to guess the amount, size or value of something. Next up, we have to “drive” something, which in the context of the story means to cause or to make something happen. You’ll hear it today in the form “driven by”, which you can think of as “caused by”. The next word, “transmission”, describes the process of spreading an illness from one person to another. Illnesses that can be spread in this way are called “infectious”, which is the next word to listen for. Next we have to “take off”, or to quickly become big, important or serious. When something is “fatal”, it causes death. And then there’s “significant”, which is another way of saying large, important and noticeable. The last one for today is “to withdraw”, to take away or to remove something.

All right, and with that, let’s listen to the story.

Reuters: Dengue fever will become a major threat in the southern United States, southern Europe and new parts of Africa this decade, the WHO's chief scientist has warned. Warmer temperatures are creating ideal conditions for mosquitoes carrying the infection to spread.
 
The illness has long been a scourge in much of Asia and Latin America, causing an estimated 20,000 deaths each year. And rates of the disease have already risen eight-fold globally since 2000. It's been driven in large part by climate change, as well as the increased movement of people and urbanization.
 
Though many cases go unrecorded, 4.2 million cases of dengue fever were reported worldwide in 2022, and public health officials have warned that near-record levels of transmission are expected this year.
 
World Health Organization infectious diseases specialist Jeremy Farrar told Reuters that some regions in the U.S., southern Europe and Africa had reported some limited local transmission already.
 
He called for better preparation of the impacted areas where the infection is likely to take off in order to avoid putting extreme pressure on health services. This could include triaging plans for hospitals and urban planning, to avoid areas of standing water near or in houses.
 
Most people who contract dengue do not have symptoms.
Those who do can experience fever, muscle spasms and joint pain so severe it is known as “breakbone fever.” Though it is fatal in less than 1% of cases.

Earlier this week, the WHO recommended Takeda Pharmaceuticals' Qdenga vaccine for children aged 6 to 16 in areas where the infection is a significant public health problem. Qdenga is also approved by the EU regulator, but Takeda withdrew its application in the United States earlier this year, citing data collection issues. Takeda said it was still in talks with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the vaccine.

Katrina: And we’ve reached the end of another episode! Can you believe it? We’ve got 10 episodes “under our belt” already!
Do you have any idea what that expression could mean?
We’ll be taking another break next week, so you’ll have plenty of time to figure it out. A dictionary could be helpful for that!
And while you’re at it, maybe you could look up any words or phrases from today’s story that you’re still not sure about.
See you back here in two weeks for the next episode of Babbel News – English Only. Looking forward to having you back! Bye bye!