[The effects of global climatic changes on bloodsucking ectoparasites and pathogens they transmit]

The present global climatic changes, regardless of their causes and duration, are of paramount importance from the ecological perspective. The influence of these changes on Russian population health attracts the attention of experts. The most important changes have already taken place in the high and middle latitudes, occupied by Russia. The article covers a probable impact of global changes on the distribution of bloodsucking arthropods as the vectors of inoculable disease agents, their abundance and vector capacity, and the role of migratory birds in their spreading. For Russia, the most important is to forecast the condition of the population of gnats, malaria vectors in particular, as well as ticks, the latter group being the vectors of tickborne infections ranging from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Analysis of the changes in mean annual temperatures during the past century by the example of Minsk, an East European city, demonstrates its nearly 1.5-fold increase. Minsk in Belarus, as well as many big cities in Russia, such as St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg etc., present the so called "warm islands". Global increase in temperatures, winter ones first of all, especially in megapolises, leads to outbreaks of inoculable diseases transmitted by bloodsucking vectors in urbanized territories, with a noticeable north shift of their natural ranges. Recent epidemics of West Nile fever in New York City, USA, as well as in Krasnodar and Volgograd, Russia, can serve as examples. Increased mean summer temperatures, as well as prolonged warm and humid periods, facilitate malaria transmissions. The periods of possible successful transmission of tick-borne infections is prolonged likewise, with a north-west shift of their ranges. Thus, Japanese encephalitis outbreaks are expected in Russian Primorye and in the south of Sakhalin Island. Among known and still revealed tick-borne diseases, an increased role is going to be played by mixed viral as well as bacterial infections.