Climate hazards such as floods, heatwaves and droughts have exacerbated more than half of the hundreds of known epidemics such as malaria, hantavirus, cholera and even anthrax.
Researchers examined the medical literature for cases of established disease and found 218 of 375 known human infections. ,according to a study in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday.
Physicians dating back to Hippocrates have long linked disease to the weather, but this study shows just how far-reaching the effects of climate can be on human health. increase.
Researchers have not only focused on infectious diseases, but have expanded their research to include all types of human illnesses, including asthma, allergies, and even non-communicable diseases such as animal bites. examined a number of diseases that may be associated with 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.
Although the new study does not attempt to attribute changes, odds or magnitude of specific diseases to climate change, it does find instances where extreme weather is likely a contributing factor. The study uncovered 1,006 links from climate hazards to disease.
"As the climate changes, so does the risk of these diseases," said study co-author Jonathan Patz, PhD, director of his Institute for Global Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I'm here.
Physicians such as Patz said that sickness should be viewed as a symptom of the sickness of the planet.
"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.
Camilo Mora, lead author of the study and a climate data analyst at the University of Hawaii, said it's important to note that the study does not predict future cases. That's it.
"There is no speculation here," Mora said. "These things have already happened."
An example Mora knows firsthand. About five years ago, Mora's home in rural Colombia was flooded. For the first time in his memory, water was in the living room. Mora contracted Chikungunya, a nasty virus spread by mosquito bites. Although he survived, years later he still has joint pain.
Sometimes climate change 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.
Mora originally wanted to search medical cases to see how COVID-19 intersected with the climate disaster. He found instances where extreme weather exacerbated and reduced his chances of COVID. 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.
Christy Evie, a longtime climate and public health expert at the University of Washington, warned of concerns about some of the ways in which the conclusions were drawn and the methods of research. It's an established fact that natural gas burning has led to more frequent and intense extreme weather, and studies show that weather patterns are linked to many health problems, she said.
"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.”
However, the Harvard Public Dr. Aaron Bernstein, interim director of the Center for Climate, Health and Global Environment at the Graduate School of Health, Emorys Del Rio, and three other outside experts said the study was a good climate warning. Stay healthy now and in the future. In particular, global warming and habitat loss are bringing animals and their diseases closer to humans, Bernstein said.
"This study highlights that climate change may favor unwelcome infectious surprises," Bernstein said in an email. "But of course, we are only reporting what we already know about pathogens and what we don't yet know, and how preventing further climate change could prevent future disasters like COVID-19." We may be even more compelling about what we can prevent.”
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