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Deadly virus could trigger next pandemic as doctors warn Spain faces new infection threats

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People can become infected through contact with contaminated materials. Photo credit : blvdone/Shutterstock

A mosquito bite could expose you to an infection that was once associated with tropical countries, without you ever leaving Spain. Now, infectious disease specialists are also warning about the potential threat posed by Lassa fever, a potentially deadly virus that one expert believes could cause a future pandemic.

Experts from the Spanish Society of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology (SEIMC) say warmer temperatures, changing rainfall, deforestation and growing international mobility are altering the conditions in which pathogens and the insects or animals carrying them survive. Their concern is that infections can reach new places more quickly and become harder to predict.

Diseases are no longer confined to familiar regions

At a meeting organised by SEIMC and the National Association of Health Journalists, infectious disease specialist Luis Buzón said international travel makes it increasingly difficult to think of illnesses as belonging to one particular region. Someone can travel between continents within hours, potentially carrying an infection into an area where conditions may allow it to spread.

Veterinary virologist Antonio Rivero pointed to chikungunya as an example. After a major outbreak on the French island of Réunion around 15 to 20 years ago, the disease has since appeared in mainland Europe, including France. The specialists warned that other infections could follow as the insects carrying them expand into new areas. 

Mosquitoes and sandflies already found in Spain

Several insects capable of transmitting these diseases are already established in the Iberian Peninsula. Aedes mosquitoes can carry dengue, Zika and chikungunya; Culex mosquitoes transmit West Nile virus; and Phlebotomus sandflies can spread Toscana virus. Warmer conditions and changing rainfall can extend the period when some insects are active and help them survive in places that were previously less suitable.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has recorded locally acquired dengue and chikungunya cases in Europe, with international travel helping to introduce infections into areas where Aedes mosquitoes are established. Spain is already monitoring West Nile virus, which circulates mainly between birds and mosquitoes. By November 4, 149 locally acquired human cases had been reported in Spain during 2026. 

Lassa fever is the disease raising particular concern

Among the infections discussed by the specialists, Lassa fever stood out as one of Rivero’s biggest concerns. The virus is endemic in parts of West Africa and is carried by rodents, which can contaminate food and household items through their urine and droppings. People can become infected through contact with contaminated materials or infected rodents. Human-to-human transmission is also possible through direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids, particularly in healthcare settings where infection-control measures are inadequate.

The World Health Organization says there is no epidemiological evidence of airborne spread between people.  Rivero said Lassa fever repeatedly features among the World Health Organization’s high-priority pathogens because of its potential to cause a major international health threat. He described it as more severe than mpox and suggested the recent spread of mpox should serve as a warning of how quickly infections can cross borders. 

Why doctors take Lassa fever seriously

Around 80 per cent of people infected with Lassa virus have no symptoms or only mild illness, according to the WHO. In more serious cases, the disease can affect several organs and cause bleeding, breathing difficulties and shock. The WHO reports an overall case fatality rate of about 1 per cent, rising to 15 per cent or more among patients hospitalised with severe disease. 

There is currently no licensed vaccine. Early diagnosis and supportive medical care improve the chances of survival, but identifying the infection can be difficult because its early symptoms, including fever, weakness and headache, resemble those of other illnesses. The specialists were warning about Lassa fever’s potential, not reporting an outbreak in Spain. 

Other infections on the radar

The doctors also highlighted mpox, which demonstrated how an infection associated with particular regions could cause outbreaks thousands of kilometres away. Dengue and Zika remain concerns because of Aedes mosquitoes, while West Nile virus is already monitored in Spain. Toscana virus, spread by sandflies, can cause illness including meningitis or encephalitis. 

The experts called for a One Health approach that considers people, animals and the environment together. Changes to climate, land use and wildlife can affect how infections emerge and spread, while international travel makes it harder to treat them as problems belonging to individual countries.

Spain’s health system faces a changing challenge

Buzón called for the development of infectious diseases as a medical speciality in Spain, arguing that health services need the expertise to identify and manage infections that may be unfamiliar to frontline teams. He acknowledged that no health system can be fully prepared for every unexpected emergency, but said early detection and scientific preparation are essential. 

The specialists urged clear public communication without alarmism. Their concern is not that people should be afraid of travelling or spending time outdoors, but that doctors must prepare for infections that may appear in places where they were once rarely seen

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Ozone Hole Bigger Than North America Hits A 10-Year High: What NASA Says Happens Next

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3 days ago

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November 7, 2026

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The Antarctic ozone hole on September 18, the day it reached its peak size. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory / Lauren Dauphin

The hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica has grown to its biggest size in 10 years, covering an area larger than the whole of North America at its peak. NASA and NOAA have now laid out what caused it, how scientists measured it and how far the long road to recovery has come.

The ozone hole peaked at 27.1 million square kilometres

Scientists at NASA and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said the hole over the South Pole reached its maximum on Friday September 18, covering 27.1 million square kilometres (10.5 million square miles). That’s bigger than the whole of North America, and it makes this the largest ozone hole for a decade. 

Across the whole stretch from September 7 to October 13, it averaged 25 million square kilometres (9.6 million square miles), which is more than twice the size of the United States. At its peak it reached about 90 per cent of the biggest hole ever recorded, which came on September 9, 2000.

It’s now the seventh biggest in 48 years of monitoring, though it wasn’t as deep as the record holes of 10 to 20 years ago. It’s also a sharp jump from last year, when the hole ranked as the fifth smallest since 1992, so the swing has been enough to catch plenty of people off guard.

How scientists keep watch from the bottom of the world 

Teams at the South Pole Baseline Atmospheric Observatory launch weather balloons carrying ozone-measuring instruments, known as ozonesondes, up through the sky, with one such launch carried out on October 18. A Dobson spectrophotometer, an optical instrument, also measures the total amount of ozone overhead.

Scientists count the hole as the area where ozone falls below 220 Dobson units, which is why the map NASA released shows it in warm colours against the paler surroundings. 

Satellites have been tracking the ozone layer since 1979, with NASA’s Aura, NOAA-20, NOAA-21 and the joint NASA and NOAA Suomi NPP satellite among those named in the latest findings.

Those readings showed the thinnest point directly above the pole was 105 Dobson units on October 17. That’s the scientists’ standard measure, where 100 units would squash all the ozone overhead into a layer just one millimetre thick at ground level, and it sits well above the lowest value ever recorded over the South Pole, 92 units in October 2006. 

Weather helped the hole stay open

Every southern spring a hole opens in the ozone layer above Antarctica, and this year scientists say it simply refused to close up as quickly as usual.

The damage starts with human-made chemicals containing chlorine and bromine, which drift up into the stratosphere (the layer of atmosphere high above the weather). There, ultraviolet light breaks them down, and the freed atoms attack ozone on the surface of clouds that form in the freezing Antarctic air.

Paul Newman, a longtime leader of NASA’s ozone research team, said an unusually powerful polar vortex had “extended ozone depletion in the Antarctic this season”. NOAA’s Amy Butler explained that weak weather waves in August and September kept the strongest winds several degrees of latitude further from the pole, which let the vortex stay large and widened the area where ozone is destroyed.

Newman added that the hole could have been 1 to 2 million square miles bigger still if ozone-damaging chemicals were as common as they were at their peak in 2000.

The long-term recovery is still on track

So why aren’t scientists sounding the alarm? Because the chemicals behind the damage, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) once used in aerosols, fridges and air conditioners, were replaced under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, an international treaty. NOAA‘s Stephen Montzka said chlorine from those chemicals in the Antarctic atmosphere has now fallen by about a third from its 1980s peak.

NASA and NOAA say the layer is still expected to recover by the 2070s. That long wait is down to how stubborn the old chemicals are, as they can linger for decades in the atmosphere and inside old products and landfills. Newman also pointed out that in recent years the hole has been forming later in the season, which he said shows the ozone layer is healing. Last year’s fifth-smallest hole and this year’s big one show how much a single season’s weather can swing the picture, even as the chemistry underneath keeps improving. 

Why the ozone layer is worth guarding

High up in the stratosphere, the ozone layer acts as a shield that soaks up much of the sun’s harmful UV radiation before it reaches the ground. Thinner cover lets more through, which raises the risk of skin cancer and cataracts in people, and of damage to animals, plants and crops. That’s why scientists track the hole’s size every year, and why a swing as big as this year’s gets so much attention.

It’s also worth knowing this is a different thing from the ozone that turns up in air pollution reports. Ozone in the stratosphere protects life, while ozone at ground level is a pollutant, so the two shouldn’t be mixed up.

The findings from NASA and NOAA concern the Antarctic and don’t address any change in UV levels elsewhere. So the next test comes when the hole reforms next southern spring, when scientists will be watching to see whether it starts forming later in the season again.

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