The findings of the study conducted by the University of Hawaii show that many infectious diseases are spreading faster due to climate change.
It is not news that climate change is taking a toll on them infectious diseases. But the new study from the University of Hawaii, published in the scientific journal “Nature”, attests to the extent of the threat, concluding that 58% of infectious diseases are exacerbated by indicators related to greenhouse gas emissions. “It’s really scary to see that CO2 emissions are such a big threat to public health,” said Camilo Mora, a professor at the University of Hawaii who led the study.
Each factor related to climate change affects the human system differently. For example, the lack of water and food due to drought drives wild animals into populated areas in search of food, increasing the risk of disease transmission from animals or parasites. Drought also can lead to ingestion of contaminated water and cause cholera or diarrhoea.
Floods and severe storms on the other hand disrupt the supply of clean drinking water by damaging roads, power lines or sewage systems. In previous years, such phenomena were foci of transmission of viruses, such as hepatitis A and E, Rotavirus and Typhus. Intense temperatures weaken the immune system and therefore it is more susceptible to diseases. The same can happen to both humans and animals due to stress caused by extreme weather events.
An example is the outbreak of Hendra virus transmission, which can cause severe encephalitis in humans from bats because there is a lack of food and intense heat. In total, climate change can cause disease outbreaks in more than a thousand different ways.
Population spread of “carriers” on a global scale
High temperatures also promote the spread of “carriers”, such as mosquitoes or ticks, as they reproduce more easily. As a result global warming has benefited the population growth of these insect vectors. More than 100 diseases transmitted by these vectors have worsened due to climate change.
“In Germany and in Europe we are already observing the influence of climate change on pathogenic diseases” underlines Dr. Renke Luken from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, speaking to DW.
The virologist turns his attention especially to the Asian tiger mosquito which has spread widely in Europe and is responsible for the outbreak of Chikungunya and dengue fever in the Mediterranean.
The only solution is to reduce CO2 emissions
A study from the University of Georgia in 2020 showed that over 1.3 billion people will live in 2050 in areas of transmission of the Zika virus, which is also transmitted by the tiger mosquito. “These findings are very worrying as very few of the diseases that are transmitted in this way have approved vaccines for the general population”, notes Dr. Renke Luken.
The head of the Robert Koch Epidemiological Institute, Lothar Wheeler, calls for more attention to be paid to Germany as well regarding the transmission of “exotic” diseases. “Climate change leads to an increase in the breeding grounds of viral vectors, such as mosquitoes, which are hotbeds of transmission of pathogenic viruses, bacteria and parasites, while it is possible that malaria will return,” said Lothar Wheeler at a press conference.
Researchers at the University of Hawaii consider it difficult to impossible to avoid the increased spread of diseases due to climate change, while according to them an “aggressive approach” to reducing CO2 emissions in the atmosphere is necessary.
DW – Tim Schauenberg/ Iosifina Tsagalidou
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