Climate change, environmental temperature change, and resistance to insecticides of dengue mosquito.

To the Editor: The recent article, “Impact of environmental temperatures on resistance to organophosphate insecticides in Aedes aegypti from Trinidad,” is very interesting (1). Polson and colleagues simulated temperature change as a model of global warming and concluded that “the use of insecticides for dengue prevention and control may yet be effective if temperatures increase as projected” (1). Indeed, change in dengue epidemiology due to global warming is an interesting issue (2). However, it should be noted that the study focused on a single climatic parameter. In the case of global warming, increased temperatures usually go along with other problems, such as increased rainfall. There is no doubt that rainfall is directly related to the epidemiological pattern of the dengue mosquito (3). An interesting follow-up study would include rainfall and humidity in the model and determine what the pattern of insecticide resistance might be.