Topline
Climate hazards such as warming, flooding, heat waves and drought have at times aggravated 58% of infectious diseases affecting humans, according to a review of scientific studies published in the journal Nature Climate Change, underlining the implications that climate change has for public health.
A new study found 58% of infectious diseases were aggravated by climate hazards, including heat … [+]
Key Facts
Out of a list of 375 infectious diseases that affect humans, the authors found evidence in scientific literature of cases where 218 had been aggravated by climate hazards.
The diseases–including anthrax, cholera, malaria, Lyme disease, West Nile virus and the Zika virus–had been documented to have spread more easily in certain cases as a result of 10 climate hazards, including warming temperatures, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, intensifying precipitation and storms, floods, sea-level rise, ocean acidification and changes in natural land cover, such as human-induced deforestation.
In some cases, the hazards brought humans closer to pathogens (including droughts and floods that displace people), according to the study, while in others, pathogens were brought closer to humans, as global warming allowed them to spread.
Some 223 of the diseases, or 78%, were found to have been aggravated in the 3,213 cases of climate hazards’ health impacts that the study found research on, while nine diseases were exclusively diminished and 54 (19%) were aggravated in some cases and diminished in others.
The largest single factor was warming temperatures, with cases documented in which they had aggravated 160 unique diseases, followed by precipitation (122 diseases), floods (121), drought (81), storms (71) and land cover changes (61).
Most of the diseases were spread by viruses (76), followed by bacteria (69), animals (45), fungi (24) or single-cell protozoa bacteria (23).
Key Background
An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment of climate science released in March forecast that average global temperatures will rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) in the next 20 years — under a best-case scenario. The IPCC also warned an increase to 2 degrees Celsius could further hasten or accelerate the spread of diseases.
Contra
The transmission of disease increases as temperatures rise, but only to a point, research suggests, when excessive heat becomes too much to handle for the vectors and pathogens that spread them. In parts of Africa, for example, extreme temperatures and drought can hurt the mosquitos that carry malaria.
Further Reading
How Net Zero Became Our Global Climate Goal And Why We Need It (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/08/09/over-half-of-infectious-diseases-could-be-worsened-by-climate-change-study-finds/