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'Horrible' study links climate hazards to hundreds of infectious diseases

Scientists Warn Risk of 'Climate Endgame'

Climate hazards such as floods,heat wavesand droughts account for more than half of the hundreds of known epidemics, including malaria. Hantavirus, cholera, and anthrax, the study said.

Researchers examined the medical literature for cases of established disease and found that 218 of the 375 known human infections, or 58%, were associated with 10 types of extreme weather events. Climate Change, published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change

According to a study published in that doctors traced back to Hippocrates and linked disease to the weather, this study shows just how far-reaching the effects of climate are on human health.

"As the climate changes, so does the risk of these diseases," says University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Jonathan Patz, Director of the Global Health Institute and co-author of the study, said.

Physicians such as Mr. Patz say that the disease should be viewed as a planetary manifestation of disease.

"The results of this study are horrifying and highlight the profound impact of climate change on human pathogens," said Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease expert at Emory University. said. 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.

Researchers have expanded their research beyond infectious diseases to include all types of human illnesses, including asthma, allergies, and even non-communicable diseases such as animal bites. We examined a number of possible associated diseases. 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.

The new study does not do the calculations to attribute the change, odds or magnitude of specific diseases to climate change, but finds cases where extreme weather is likely due to many factors. . The study uncovered 1,006 links from climate hazards to disease.

Camilo Mora, lead author of the study and his analyst for climate data at the University of Hawaii, said the important point 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, his living room had water, creating an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes. and MoraChikungunya, 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 howCOVID-19 intersected with the dangers of climate change. was 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 Ebi, 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 the study. It is an established fact that the burning of 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."

However, Harvard Public Health Dr. Aaron Bernstein, interim director of the graduate school's Center for Climate, Health and Global Environment, Emory's 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 underscores that climate change may load the dice in a way that fosters unwanted infectious surprises," Bernstein said in an email. “But of course we are only reporting on what we already know about pathogens and what we don't yet know, and how preventing further climate change will impact future disasters like COVID-19.

Last week, as extreme weather continued to ravage the planet, the worldentered a "climate endgame."We need to start preparing for the possibility, said an international team of scientists.

``Right now, I think we are naive. We're not looking at any worst case scenario," said Luke Kemp of the Cambridge Centre, one of the study's authors. For the study of existential risk.

report by Kemp and his colleagues warned of the risk of increased climate-induced infectious diseases and the risk of famine, extreme weather disasters. ing. and conflicts over resources. 

Nearly 500,000 people died in from natural disasters related to extreme weather over the past 20 years, according to a 2021 direct study. Climate Change

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