Longer and warmer summers are increasing the risk of several infectious diseases across Europe, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has warned. In a statement issued on July 29, the European Union health agency said that sustained higher temperatures, rather than individual heatwave episodes alone, were extending the periods during which pathogens and vectors could multiply or spread. Unlike a short heatwave, a prolonged warm spell gives mosquito populations more generations in which to build up and more time to acquire and transmit pathogens, which is why the agency is drawing this distinction. The ECDC called for