Study shows that 58% of people's infectious diseases will be exacerbated by the dangers of climate change

Climate hazards such asfloods,heat waves anddroughts account for more than half of the hundreds of known infectious diseases. It exacerbates diseases such as malaria, hantavirus, cholera, and anthrax in humans, says one study.

Researchers examined the medical literature for cases of established disease and found that of the 375 known human infections, 218, or 58%, had 1 It turns out that once infected it seems to get worse. It is one of ten types of extreme weather associated withclimate change, according to a study in the journal Nature Climate Change Monday.

The study showed 1,006 pathways fromclimate hazardsto sick people. In some cases, downpours and floods make people sick from disease-carrying mosquitoes, rats and deer. Warming oceans and heat waves contaminate seafood and other foods, and there are droughts when bats bring viral infections to humans.

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Physicians have long linked disease to weather, dating back to Hippocrates, but this study shows how far-reaching the effects of climate are on human health. is showing.

"As the climate changes, so does the risk of these diseases," said study co-author Jonathan Patz, PhD, director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. increase.

Physicians such as Patz said the disease should be viewed as a global manifestation of disease.

"The results of this study are terrifying and highlight the enormous impact of climate change on human pathogens," said Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease expert at Emory University. said Dr. He did not participate in this study. “For those of us in infectious diseases and microbiology, we need to make climate change one of our priorities, and we all need to work together to prevent climate change from becoming an undeniable catastrophe.

In addition to focusing on infectious diseases, researchers have expanded their research to include all types of human illness, including asthma, allergies, and even non-communicable diseases such as animal bites. , examined the number of diseases with which they may be associated. to some form of climate hazard, including infectious disease. They found a total of 286 unique diseases, of which 223 appeared to be exacerbated by climate hazards, 9 were reduced by climate hazards, and 54 had both exacerbated and minimal cases.

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New study does not attribute change, odds or magnitude of specific diseases to climate change However, we found cases where extreme weather is likely due to many factors.

Camilo Mora, lead author of the study and his analyst for climate data at the University of Hawaii, said the important thing to note is that the study does not predict future cases. about it.

"There is no speculation here," Mora said. "These things have already happened."

Mora is one of the first-hand examples. About five years ago, Mora's home in rural Colombia was flooded. For the first time in his memory, water was in his living room, creating an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. Mora then contracted Chikungunya, a nasty virus spread by mosquito bites. Although he survived, years later he still has joint pain.

Climate change sometimes works in strange ways. Mora includes a case in Siberia in 2016 when a decades-old carcass of a reindeer was found dead from anthrax when the permafrost thawed due to global warming. A child touched it and contracted anthrax, causing an outbreak.

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Mora originally searched for medical cases to see how COVID-19 intersects with the dangers of climate change. I wanted to He found instances where extreme weather exacerbated and reduced his chances of COVID-19. In some cases, extreme heat in poor neighborhoods forced people to gather to stay cool and expose themselves to disease, while in other situations people stayed indoors and away from others. heavy rains have reduced the spread of COVID.

Christie Evie, a longtime climate and public health expert at the University of Washington, warned of concerns about how the conclusions were drawn and some of the methods of research.Coal It is an established fact that the burning of , oil and natural gas has led to more frequent and intense extreme weather events, and research shows that weather patterns are linked to many health problems.

"But correlation is not causation," Ebi said in an email. “The authors did not discuss the extent to which the reviewed climate hazards changed during the study period, nor the extent to which changes were attributable to climate change.”

But Aaron Bernstein, Ph.D., interim director of the Center for Climate, Health and Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health at Emory University, said Del Rio and three other external Experts said the study was a good warning for climate and health, now and in the future. says Mr.

"This study highlights that climate change may favor unwelcome infectious surprises," Bernstein said in an email. “But, of course, it only reports on what we already know and what we don’t yet know about pathogens, and how preventing further climate change will prevent future disasters like COVID-19. It may be even more compelling as to how this can be prevented.”

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