Rabat – A new research published in Nature Climate Change shines the light on the extent of the effects of climate change on human pathogenic diseases, saying that the aggravations are too numerous to be countered by social adaptation.
The report highlights the urgent need to work on the main cause of the problem: greenhouse gas emissions — arguing that reducing the emissions will be the best way to stop these aggravations.
The research found more than 3,000 cases where climatic hazards contributed to pathogenic diseases. Out of 286 diseases examined, 277 were aggravated by climate change.
Although some climatic hazards helped diminish the severity of some diseases, the vast majority of those were still aggravated by other climate-related conditions, highlighting the overall negative effect of climate change on public health.
“The compilation of pathogenic diseases aggravated by climatic hazards represent 58% of all infectious diseases reported to have impacted humanity worldwide,” the study found.
Out of the climate conditions researchers examined, warming, precipitation, and floods were found to aggravate the most diseases.
These conditions can help bring the diseases closer to people, especially by providing a better environment for animals and insects that spread them. This especially applies to insects such as mosquitoes and ticks.
Heatwaves and higher temperatures have also been linked to an increase in waterborne diseases, as people seek recreational water activities like swimming more and more.
In addition, changing climate conditions diminished human capacities to deal with pathogens, due to added stress from extreme weather conditions and overwhelming healthcare infrastructures.
Meanwhile, extreme weather conditions can improve the virulence of viruses and other disease vectors, by improving the environment for reproduction and shortening incubation times.
Pfizer recently announced its third-phase trials for a new Lyme vaccine, usually spread by ticks.
The disease had stopped being a concern almost 20 years ago, leading to its vaccine being pulled from the market due to low demand, but Pfizer decided to make a new one citing increasing cases due in part to climate change.
