Impact of global warming on human health
According to the World Health Organization,
WHO claims climate changeaffects social and environmental health factors such as clean air, safe drinking water, adequate food and safe shelter.
In general, the impact on public health will be more negative than positive. Extreme weather conditions will cause injury and death, and crop failures threaten malnutrition.
- Heat effect
High fever leads to death fromcardiovascular and respiratory diseases, especially among older people. For example, a heat wave in Europe in the summer of 2003 resulted in more than 70,000 deaths.
High temperature in the air raises the levelpollutants such as ozone, which leads to worsening of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. During extreme heat, the level of aeroallergens, such as pollen, rises. They can provoke asthma (which affects approximately 300 million people).
Climate-related natural disasters cause more than 60,000 deaths each year. Mostly in developing countries.
In some regions, there will be a transition frommortality from cold to mortality from heat. In 2018, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study that linked fever and increased suicide rates. The paper says hot days are increasing suicide rates and could cause more than 26,000 suicides in the United States by 2050.
- Regional implications
The intergovernmental commission has identified a numberareas most vulnerable to expected climate change. This is the Sahara region, the mega-deltas of Asia, small islands. Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change due to multiple existing stresses and low adaptive capacity.
Existing problems include poverty,political conflicts and ecosystem degradation. By 2050, it is projected that 350 to 600 million people will experience an increase in water scarcity due to climate change. Climate variability and change are projected to severely damage agricultural production, including access to food, across Africa.
Negative changes in Europe includeincreasing temperatures and increasing droughts in the south (resulting in a decrease in water resources and a decrease in hydroelectric power generation, a decrease in agricultural production, worsening tourism conditions), a decrease in snow cover and the retreat of mountain glaciers, an increase in the risk of severe floods and catastrophic floods on rivers.
Increased summer precipitation in Central and EasternEurope, an increase in the frequency of forest fires, peatland fires, a decrease in forest productivity; increasing soil instability in Northern Europe. In the Arctic, there is a decrease in the area of ice sheets, a decrease in the area of sea ice, and an increase in coastal erosion.
Global warming and infections
For airborne infections,The ability of the pathogen to survive for a certain time in air, water, and soil is important through the fecal-oral or contact-household transmission mechanism. The number and activity of blood-sucking insects that carry a number of infections depends on temperature and other climatic conditions. Most infections are seasonal.
If morbidity depends on short-termweather changes associated with the seasons, which means that long-term climate changes that extend or shorten the duration of summer or winter will also have an impact on morbidity. Many infections have a clearly defined distribution area, determined by the environmental characteristics of both the pathogen (viruses, bacteria, protozoa, fungi) and the “hosts” (humans or animals) and vectors (mosquitoes, ticks, etc.). Malaria does not occur in the tundra, and tick-borne encephalitis does not occur in the tropics.
However, with global warming, the areas of these and other infections will expand, which will inevitably affect Russia.
Malaria
This is a group of vector-borne infectious diseases transmitted to humans through the bites of female mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles (“malaria mosquitoes”), caused by parasitic protists of the genusPlasmodium, mainlyPlasmodium falciparum.
Malaria is accompanied by fever, chills,splenomegaly (an increase in the size of the spleen), hepatomegaly (an increase in the size of the liver), anemia. It is characterized by a chronic recurrent course.
A group of scientists from Moscow State University showed that the conditions fortransmission of malaria is much better now than it was in the 1970s. This turning point happened in the early 80s, somewhere in the 84-85th year. Indeed, the summer seasons have become more transfer-friendly.
Varvara Mironova, employee of the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University, specialist in medical geography
West Nile fever
It is an acute transmissible infectious (viral)a disease transmitted by mosquitoes and proceeding with polyadenitis, skin rashes and serous inflammation of the meninges, sometimes meningoencephalitis.
In Russia, there have long been foci of the disease inthe lower Volga and the lower Don. WNV is transmitted, as a rule, mainly by mosquitoes, and the reservoir is migratory birds. For WNV fever in a mosquito, certain temperatures are required.
She clarified that scientists for infectiousdiseases establish the relationship between temperatures and the development of the parasite, which is the causative agent of the disease. For example, a three-day fever is caused by a parasite that lives in a mosquito. However, for the development of the parasite, the body of the mosquito needs to be heated to certain temperatures.
With the warming, the West Nile fever spreads, it climbed north, at some point even in the Lipetsk region there was a transmission.
Varvara Mironova, employee of the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University, specialist in medical geography
Plague
At first glance, the impact of climate warming onthe likelihood of people contracting the plague seems quite simple, since the number and activity of rodents increases with rising temperatures, and their habitat expands. However, the most important role in human infection is played by vectors, mainly fleas, which are most susceptible to the influence of climatic factors.
The influence of climate on the epidemic process iscomplex nature, and for the occurrence of outbreaks of the disease, a certain combination of natural factors (air temperature and precipitation level, their distribution by seasons) is needed over a number of years.
Expansion of the areola of the carriers of the virus
Some scientific works indicate that due to changes in winters (more snowy and less snowy winters), conditions for successful wintering and reproduction are created for different vector animals.
White-legged hamster that is in North Americais the most important reservoir of Lyme disease (borreliosis). He moved north, appeared in southern Canada ... Now in southern Canada, there is an increased incidence of borreliosis.
Varvara Mironova, employee of the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University, specialist in medical geography
Due to the increase in average air temperatureGlaciers are melting all over the world. And along with them, viruses and spores of microorganisms that formed many years ago can thaw. And it is unknown whether the human body will be able to resist them, said bioecologist, master of ecology and environmental management Lidiya Belyaeva.
In nature, there are many varieties of the virus that are still hiding from humans in animal organisms.
Associate Professor, Department of Immunology, Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University,Allergologist-immunologist Olga Pashchenko added that pollution of water bodies and soil with waste of human activity leads to the ingress of toxic substances into the body. This increases the risk of allergic and autoimmune reactions. As a result, the human body becomes susceptible not only to new viruses, but also to long-standing pathogens.
The spread of the Asian tiger mosquito
The Asian tigera mosquito, which in its homeland was not the main carrier of dangerous diseases, but when it enters other countries, it can become one. He not only knows how to tolerate Dengue fever, but can carry other, already local viruses, for example, Zika fever.
The tiger mosquito has adapted to reproduce inpuddles that accumulate in abandoned tires. Meanwhile, tires began to be exported for processing from African countries to where there are processing enterprises, for example, in Hawaii. So a mosquito appeared in Hawaii, and from there it got to Europe with tourists.
Conclusion
There are five consequences of warming, five main points of vulnerability:
- Shift of the climate map - spread of infections to new territories
- Map shift - socio-hygienic and economic aspects
- Overload of socio-economic infrastructure
- Extreme weather events
- Ecosystem change
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