The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has begun a programme to eradicate a population of disease-carrying mosquitoes after they were identified at multiple residential properties in east London.
Upon the discovery of these invasive mosquitoes, the UKHSA has implemented several control measures to curb their spread. This includes destroying A. aegypti larvae, while closely monitoring the impacted areas to ensure a population doesn’t establish.
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While Aedes aegypti mosquitoes have been spotted several times in the UK in recent years, this is the first evidence of them actively breeding in Britain.
The identification of breeding invasive mosquitoes in the UK comes as Aedes aegypti begins to make its mark throughout parts of Europe, too, with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) declaring that the species is now established in a region of Cyprus.
Aedes aegypti is a common species of mosquito found in topical, subtropical and warm temperate regions, and is often linked to the spread of diseases like dengue, Zika and chikungunya. Of these three mosquito-borne illnesses, researchers estimate that dengue is the most prevalent, with 3.6 million cases recorded between January and August of 2026.
With the advent of climate change, which is gradually shifting temperatures in the Northern hemisphere, concerns are growing around the establishment of invasive mosquito populations in traditionally uninhabitable locations – potentially putting a new swathe of individuals at risk of conditions like dengue.
However, in the instance of the breeding mosquitoes in the UK, Dr Jolyon Medlock, head of medical entomology and Zoonoses Ecology at UKHSA, noted that the risk to the public is currently “very low”, as there is no evidence the mosquitoes have caused human infections, or that larvae have been detected in nearby public areas.
Medlock adds that Aedes aegypti generally cannot survive long-term in the typical UK climate, which is too cold for the species overall. He does caveat that, a warming climate could result in “incursions of invasive mosquitoes and increased reports of them being able to survive in the UK.”
Availability of dengue vaccine varies globally
Currently, the only vaccine to secure approval from the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is Takeda’s Qdenga (dengue tetravalent vaccine), which is available through private travel clinics for use in individuals aged four years and above. The shot is also approved in Europe under the same terms.
While Takeda originally vied for Qdenga’s approval in the US, the Japanese pharma giant later voluntarily retracted its marketing application for the vaccine after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requested additional data to support its potential approval.
Qdenga’s debut on the UK and European, as well as the Brazilian, Argentinian, Indonesian and Thai markets was a welcome step forward in dengue prevention, as previously Sanofi’s dengue vaccine, Dengvaxia was discontinued on a global scale, primarily due to a lack of demand. The shot was also embroiled in a safety controversy, as recipients given the vaccine who had not previously been infected with dengue experienced a doubling in the risk of more severe dengue and hospitalisations, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
However, Qdenga could soon face new competition, as MSD (Merck & Co) is currently evaluating its single-dose, quadrivalent dengue vaccine V181, in the Phase III MOBILIZE-1 study (NCT07013487).
