A new study published recently by Nature Climate Change revealed that 58% of infectious diseases are linked to climate threats.
According to the authors of this study, 218 diseases (i.e. 58% of the 375 human infectious diseases) seem to be aggravated by one of the ten problems associated with climate change.
Climate threats like floods, heat waves and droughts have aggravated more than half of the hundreds of infectious diseases that affect humans, including malaria, cholera, hantavirus and even anthrax, the same source added. . The study mapped 1,006 pathways, from climate hazards to sick humans. In some cases, heavy rains and floods allow mosquitoes or rats to infect humans. Warmer oceans and heat waves can contaminate food, just as heat waves can also bring virus-carrying bats.
In addition to looking at infectious diseases, the researchers looked at non-infectious issues like allergies, asthma, and even animal bites to see how many might be associated with climate hazards. They identified 286 health problems, of which 223 were aggravated by climatic hazards, 9 others were reduced and 54 were both reduced and aggravated, according to the study.
“The conclusions of this study are terrifying and clearly illustrate the enormous consequences of climate change on human pathogens”, reacted, in this sense, Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease specialist from Emory University.